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THE
HISTORY
PERSECUTION,
from the
PATRIARCI11AL AGE, TO THE REIGN OF GEORGE II.
By S. CHANDLER, D.D. F.R.S. S.A.
A New Edition.
To which are added,
The Rev. Dr. Buchanan's Notices of the present State
of the Inquisition at Goa.
ALSO, AN .
APPENDIX,
containing
HINTS ON THE RECENT PERSECUTIONS IN THE BRITISH
EMPIRE.
SOME CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO
LORD FISCOUJVT SIDMOUTH's BILL;
A CIRCUMSTANTIAL DETAIL OF THE STEPS TAKEN TO OBTAIN
Cfte jseto Coleratf cm 3rt,
WITH THE
ACT ITSELF, AND OTHER IMPORTANT MATTER.
By CHARLES ATMORE.
- *-—
" Uniformity of religious helief is not to be expected, so variously coustituted are the minds of
men, and consequently Religious Coercion is not only absurd and impolitic, but for all good pur-
poses impracticable." Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury.
HULL:
PRINTED FOR THE EDITOR, AND J. CRAGGS; AND SOLD BY LONGMAN.
HURST, REES, ORME AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW ;
BLANCHARD, N°« 14, CITY ROAD, LONDON j AND
WILSON AND SON, YORK.
1813.
PRINTED BY JOHN PBRKINS,
BOWLALtET-LANE, HULL.
The EDITOR'S PREFACE.
IT is now upwards of seventy years since this excellent treatise
was first presented to the public by the author, and, considering
his celebrity as a writer, (especially among the Dissenters) it is
presumed no apology is necessary for sending it again into the
world : especially at the present inteiesting crisis, when the subject
of Religious Toleration, is become the topic of general con-
versation and discussion. This work comprises every thing of
importance connected with the dreadful persecutions which have
disgraced human nature, both in ancient and modern times, both
at home and abroad ; and is designed to prove that the things for
which christians have persecuted one another have generally been of
Mnall importance ; that pride, ambition, andcovetousness, have been
the grand sourses of persecution; and that the religion of Jesus
Christ absolutely condemns all persecution for conscience sake.
In this Edition, I have wholly omitted Dr. Chandler's (i Pre-
face," which contains " Remarks on Dr. Rogers' vindication of
the civil establishment of religion," and have substituted Memoirs
of Dr. Chandler in its room : which I thought would be more ge-
nerally acceptable to the reader. I have also omitted all his mar-
ginal notes of a controversial nature, being answers to Dr. Berri-
man, who had written a pamphlet entitled, " Brief remarks on
Mr. Chandler's Introduction to the History of the Inquisition."
These I conceived would be at present of little use. And as the
republication of this volume is intended chiefly for common readers,
I have also left out all the Greek and Latin sentences interspersed
in the work, judging that they would be of no real advantage
to such persons. I have however retained Dr. Chandler's autho-
rities, so that the learned reader may refer to them when he thinks
proper. As to the body of the work, I have neither altered the
stnse nor the language.
The additions I have made from that justly celebrated work?
" Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia," will, I hope,
be deemed a valuable acquisition ; and I beg leave here to express
my grateful acknowledgments to the Rev. Author of that work,
a2
IV PREFACE.
for the very polite manner in which he honoured my request, in
permitting me to insert his " Notices of the Inquisition at Goa."
While this work was in the press, one of the most important
events to Religious Liberty occurred, which has taken place
since the glorious area of the Revolution, in 1688 : viz. the repeal
of the Persecuting laws, and the passing of the New Toleration
Act. This event is so closely connected with the subject matter of
this work, and reflects so much honour on the British government
and nation, that I feel highly gratified in affording the reader, a
detail of the various steps which were taken to obtain that Act :
which now effectually secures to every subject of the British Em-
pire all the Religious Liberty he can expect or desire.
I willingly record this memorial, that we, and our children
after us, may know how to appreciate our invaluable privileges ;
and that the names of those nobleman and others who boldly stood
forth in the defence and support of Religious Toleration, might be
handed down to posterity, that u our children may tell their chil-
dren, and their children another generation."
May that infinitely important and wished-for period soon arrive,
" when every invidious distinction, and every hostile passion, shall
be banished from religious society; and when all the blessings of
christian liberty shall be diffused arid enjoyed throughout the whole
world !"
" O catch its high import ye winds as ye blow,
" O bear it ye waves as ye roll,
" From the regions that feel the sun's vertical glow,
■' To the farthest extremes of the pole!',
Charles Atmore.
HULL, February 15th. 1813.
ADVERTISEMENT.
When the prospectus of this work was first published, the
Editor had no design of adding the Appendix, but intended to
give copious biographical notes of the most eminent persons re-
corded in the work. The matter of the Appendix, however, of.
terwards appeared to him of such superior importance, that he
thought himself justified in changing his plan. And he hopes the
subscribers will excuse his having omitted that part of his or?'-
?inal design, and accept of this apology for the notes, being $&
few} and so short, at the end of the volume.
CONTENTS.
PREFACE Pageiii
The Life of Dr. Chandler 1—23
The Introduction ------- 27 — 31
BOOK I.
Of Persecution amongst the Heathens.
SECT. 1.
Abraham persecuted ------ 33 — 34
SECT. 2.
Socrates persecuted amongst the Greeks ... 34 — 38
SECT. 3.
Egyptian Persecutions ._-..- 39 — 40
SECT. 4.
Persecutions by Antiochus Epiphanes - 40 — 42
SECT. 5.
Persecutions under the Romans ----- 42 — 54
SECT. 6.
Persecutions by the Mahometans - 54 — 55
BOOK II.
Of the Persecutions under the Christian Emperors - 56
SECT. 1.
Of the Dispute about Easter 67—61
SECT. 2.
Of the Persecutions under Constantine - 61 — 76
SECT. 3.
The Nicene Council, or first general Council - - 76 — 103
SECT. 4.
The first Council of Constantinople; or5 second gene-
ral Council 103—112
SECT. 5.
The Council of Ephcsus; or, third general Council 112 — 114
Yl CONTENTS.
SECT. 6.
The Council of Calcedon ; or, fourth generalCouncil Page 114 — 128
SECT. 7.
The second Council at Constantinople; or, fifth gene-
ral Council 129—136
SECT. 8.
The third Council of Constantinople; or, sixth gene-
ral Council - 136—140
SECT. 9.
The second Nicene Council; or, seventh general
Council 141—143
BOOK III.
Of Persecutions under the Papacy, and particularly
the Inquisition 144 — 145
SECT. 1.
Of the Progress of the Inquisition - 145 — 155
SECT. 2.
Of the Officers belonging to the Inquisition - - 155 — 181
SECT. 3.
Of the Crimes cognizable by the Inquisition, and the
Punishment annexed to them - 182 — 194
SECT. 4.
Of the manner of proceeding before the Tribunal of
the Inquisition 194—203
Of the present state of the Inquisition at Goa, ex-
tracted from Dr. Buchanans Christian Re-
searches in Asia .... - 263 — 284
BOOK IV.
Of Persecutions amongst Protestants - - - 285
SECT. 1.
Luther's opinion concerning Persecution - - 286
SECT. 2.
Calvin's Doctrine and Practice concerning Persecution 288 — 300
SECT. 3.
Persecutions at Bern, Bazil, and Zurich - 300 — 303
SECT. 4.
Persecutions in Holland, and by the Synod of Dort - 303 — 311
CONTENTS. Vii
SECT. 5.
Persecutions in Great Britain ... Page 311 — 354
SECT. 6.
Of Persecutions in New England, in America - - 354 — 360
CONCLUSION.
SECT. 1.
Who have been the great promoters of Persecution - 360 — 363
SECT. 2.
The things for which Christians have persecuted one
another have generally been of small im-
portance --.-.. 363 — 359
SECT. 3.
Pride. Ambition, and Covetousness, the grand sources
of Persecution .... - 369 — 373
SECT. 4.
The Decrees of Councils, and Synods of no Autho-
rity in matters of Faith - 372 — 377
SECT. 5.
The imposing Subscription to human Creeds, unrea-
sonable and pernicious - 377 337
SECT. 6.
Adherence to the sacred Scriptures, the best security
of Truth and Orthodoxy - 387 — 390
SECT. 7.
The Christian Religion absolutely condemns Persecu-
tion for conscience sake - 390 — 413
APPENDIX.
I.
Hints on the recent persecutions in the British Empire 415 — 416
II.
His Majesty's most gracious interference with respect
to the Religious Liberties of his subjects, and
of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent's 416 — 419
III.
Some circumstances relating to Lord Sidmouth's Bill 422 — 427
IVr.
Lord Viscount Sidmouth's proposed Bill - - 427 — 433
Vlll CONTENTS.
V.
Meeting of the Committee of Privileges of the Societies
of the late Rev. John Wesley - - Page 433 — 441
VI.
Proceedings of other Committees .... 441 — 448
VII.
Further proceedings of the Committee of Privileges,
with general remarks - 448 — 453
VIII.
The number of petitions presented in the House of
Lords against Lord Sidmouth's Bill - 453 — 457
IX.
Lord Sidmouth's speech on the second reading of his
Bill, with those of other noble Lords - 457 — 472
X.
Remarks on the effects of Lord Sidmouth's Bill - 472 — 473
XI.
Letter of the Right Honourable Spencer Percival,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, with remarks 473 — 475
XII.
Steps taken to obtain the new Toleration Act - 476 — 489
XIII.
The New Toleration Act itself .... 490—498
XIV.
Observations upon the aforesaid Act, with practical
directions - - 498 — 505
XV.
Remarks on the Edict recently issued by the Emperor
of China against Christianity, with the hor-
rible Edict itself ... - 505—508
XVI.
Biographical notes .... - 509 — 520
THE
LIFE
OF
DR. SAMUEL CHANDLER
The Rev. Dr. Samuel Chandler was descended from
ancestors heartily engaged in the cause of Noncon-
formity, and great sufferers for liberty of conscience.
His paternal grandfather was a respectable trades-
man at Taunton, in Somersetshire. He was much
injured in his fortune by the persecutions under
Charles the Second, but " he took joyfully the
spoiling of his goods, knowing in himself that he
had in heaven a better and an enduring substance."
The father of Dr. Chandler was a dissenting mi-
nister of considerable worth and abilities, who spent
the greater part of his life in the city of Bath, where
he maintained an honourable name.
Our author was born at Hungerford, in Berk-
shire, in the year 1693; his father being at that
time the pastor of a congregation of protestant dis-
senters in that place. He early discovered a genius
for literature, which was carefully cultivated ; and
being placed under proper masters, he made a very
uncommon progress in classical learning, and espe-
cially in the Greek tongue. As it was intended by
B
2 LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
his friends to bring him up for the ministry, he was
sent to an academy at Bridgewater, under the care
of the Rev. Mr. Moore : hut he was soon removed
from thence to Gloucester, that he might become a
pupil to Mr. Samuel Jones, a dissenting minister of
great erudition and abilities, who had opened an
academy in that city. This academy was soon trans-
ferred to Tewkesbury, at which place Mr. Jones
presided over it for many ye,ars with very high
and 'deserved reputation. Such was the attention
of that gentleman to the morals of his pupils, and
to their progress in literature, and such the skill and
discernment with which he directed their studies,
that it was a singular advantage to be placed under
so able and accomplished a tutor. Mr. Chandler
made the proper use of so happy a situation ; apply-
ing himself to his studies with great assiduity, and
particularly to critical, biblical, and oriental learn-
ing. Among the pupils of Mr. Jones were Mr.
Joseph Butler, afterwards Bishop of Durham, and
Thomas Seeker, afterwards Archbishop of Canter-
bury. With these eminent persons he contracted a
friendship that continued to the end of their lives,
notwithstanding the different views by which their
conduct was afterwards directed, and the different
situations in which they were placed.
Mr. Chandler, having finished his academical
studies, began to preach about July, 1714; and
being soon distinguished by his talents in the pulpit,
he was chosen, in 1716, minister of the Presbyterian
congregation at Peckham, near London, in which
station he continued some years. Here he entered
into the matrimonial state, and began to have an in-
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER. O
creasing family, when, by the fatal South-sea scheme
of 1720, he unfortunately lost the whole fortune
which he had received with his wife. His circum-
stances being thereby embarrassed, and his income
as a minister being inadequate to his expences, he
engaged in the trade of a bookseller, and kept a
shop in the Poultry, London, for about two or three
years, still continuing to discharge the duties of the
pastoral office. It may not be improper to observe,
that in the earlier part of his life, Mr. Chandler was
subject to frequent and dangerous fevers ; one of
which confined him more than three months, and
threatened by its effects to disable him for public
service. He was therefore advised to confine him-
self to a vegetable diet, which he accordingly did,
and adhered to it for twelve years. This produced
so happy an alteration in his constitution, that though
he afterwards returned to the usual way of living, he
enjoyed an uncommon share of spirits and vigour till
seventy.
While Mr. Chandler was minister of the congre-
gation at Peckham, some gentlemen, of the several
denominations of dissenters in the city, came to
a resolution to set up and support a weekly evening
lecture at the Old Jewry, for the winter half year.
The subjects to be treated in this lecture were the
evidences of natural and revealed religion, and an-
swers to the principal objections against them. Two
of the most eminent young ministers among the
dissenters were appointed for the execution of this
design, of which Mr. Chandler was one, and Mr.
afterwards Dr. Lardner, who is so justly celebrated
for his learned writings, was another. But after
B 2
4 ' LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
some time this lecture was dropped, and another of
the same kind set up, to be preached by one person
only ; it being judged that it might be thereby con-
ducted with more consistency of reasoning, and
uniformity, of design ; and Mr. Chandler was ap-
pointed for this service. In the course of this
lecture, he preached some sermons on the confirm-
ation which miracles gave to the divine mission of
Christ, and the truth of his religion ; and vindicated
the argument against the objections of Collins, in
his " Discourse of the grounds and reasons of the
Christian Religion." These sermons, by the advice
of a friend, he enlarged and threw into the form of
a continued treatise, and published, in 8vo. in 1725,
under the following title : " A Vindication of the
Christian Religion, in two parts : I. A Discourse of
the nature and use of miracles. II. An Answer to
a late book, entitled, A Discourse of the grounds
and reasons of the Christian Religion.,, Dr. Le-
land observes, that in this work our author " clearly
vindicates the miracles of our Saviour, and shews,
that, as they were circumstanced, they were con-
vincing proofs of his divine mission." But though
Mr. Chandler refuted the arguments of Collins
against Christianity, he was not unwilling to do jus-
tice to his merit, and therefore candidly said,* in the
preface to his own book, " The preface to the Dis-
course of the grounds and reasons is, in my judg-
ment, an excellent defence of the liberty of every
one's judging for himself, and of proposing his opi-
nions to others, and of defending them with the
best reasons he can, which every one hath a right
to, as a man and a Christian." Our author also
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER. ->
zealously opposed any interference of the civil ma-
gistrate in the defence of Christianity : " Though
the magistrate's sword," says he, " may very fitly
be employed to prevent libertinism, or the breach
of the public peace by men's vices, yet the progress
of infidelity must be controuled another way, viz.
by convincing men's consciences of the truth of
Christianity, and fairly answering their objections
against it. Is it not surprising, that men, who take
their religion upon trust, and who therefore can
know but little of the intrinsic worth of Christianity,
or of that strong evidence that there is to support
it, should be in pain for it, when they find it at-
tacked by any new objections, or old ones placed in
a somewhat different view from what they were be-
fore ; or that they should call out aloud to the ma-
gistrate to prevent the making them, because they
know not how otherwise to answer them ? But that
men of learning and great abilities, whose proper
office it is to defend Christianity, by giving the rea-
sons for their faith, and who seem to have both
ability and leisure thus to stand up in the behalf of
it, should make their appeal to the civil power, and
become humble suitors to the magistrate to controul
the spirit of infidelity, is strangely surprising. It
looks as if they suspected the strength of Christianity ;
otherwise, one would think they would not invite
such strange and foreign aids to their assistance,
when they could have more friendly ones nearer at
home, that would much more effectually support and
protect it ; or at least, as though they had some
other interest to maintain than the cause of common
Christianity j though at the same time they would
t) LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
willingly be thought to have nothing else in view,
but the service and honour of it. If the scheme of
our modern deists be founded in truth, I cannot
help wishing it all good success ; and it would be a
crime in the civil magistrate, by any methods of
violence, to prevent the progress of it : but if, as I
believe, Christianity is the cause of God, it will pre-
vail by its own native excellence, and of conse-
quence needs not the assistance of the civil power."
A second edition of this work was published in
1728. Having presented a copy of it to Archbishop
Wake, his grace expressed his sense of the value of
the favour in the following letter, which is too ho-
nourable a testimony to Mr. Chandler's merit to be
omitted. It appears from the letter, that the Arch-
bishop did not then know that the author was any
other than a bookseller.
« Sir,
a Though I have been hindered by business,
and company extraordinary, the last week, from finishing
your good book, yet I am come so near the end of it, that
I may venture to pass my judgment upon it, that it is a very
good one, and such as I hope will be of service to the end
for which you designed it.
" I think you have set the notion of a miracle upon a clear
and sure foundation; and by the true distinction of our
blessed Saviour, in considering him as a Prophet sent from
God, and as the Messiah promised to the Jews, have effec-
tually proved him, by his doctrine and miracles, to be the
one, and by his accomplishment of the prophecies of the Old
Testament to be the other.
" I cannot but own myself to be surprised, to see so much
good learning and just reasoning in a person of your profes-
sion ; and do think it a pity you should not rather spend your
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER. 7
time in writing books, than in selling them. But I am glad,
since your circumstances oblige you to the latter, yet you
do not wholly omit the former. As we are all, who call
ourselves Christians, obliged to you for this performance, in
defence of our holy religion, so I must, in particular, re-
turn you my thanks for tTie benefit I have received by it ;
and own to you that I have, as to myself, been not only
usefully entertained, but edified by it. I hope you will re-
ceive your reward from God for it. It is the hearty wish of,
" Sir, your obliged friend,
" William Cant."
" Lambeth House, Feb. 14, 1725."
Besides gaining the archbishop's approbation,
Mr. Chandler's performance considerably advanced
his reputation in general, and contributed to his re-
ceiving an invitation, about the year 1726, to settle
as a minister with the congregation in the Old
Jewry, which was one of the most respectable in
London. Here he continued, first as assistant, and
afterwards as pastor, for the space of forty years,
and discharged the duties of the ministerial office
with great assiduity and ability, being much esteem-
ed and regarded by his own congregation, and
acquiring a distinguished reputation both as a
preacher and a writer.
In 1727, Mr. Chandler published " Reflections
on the conduct of the modern deists, in their late
writings against Christianity: occasioned chiefly
by two books, entitled, A Discourse of the grounds
and reasons, &c. and the Scheme of literal pro-
phecy considered : with a preface, containing some
Remarks on Dr. Rogers's preface to his eight ser-
mons." In this performance he exposed the unfair
methods that were employed by the enemies of
8 LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
Christianity in their attack of it, and the disinge-
nuity of their reasoning ; and in his preface, he
combated some sentiments which had been advanced
by Dr. Rogers, canon residentiary of Wells, and
chaplain to the Prince of Wales, to the prejudice of
free inquiry, and the right of private judgment.
Mr. Chandler, who considered what had been ad-
vanced by Dr. Rogers, " in favour of church power
and authority, as strongly savouring of the spirit
of persecution, could not refrain from examining
the Doctor's scheme, which was to blend religion
and politics together, or to make religion not a per-
sonal but a state matter. Accordingly he has offered
some very spirited and judicious remarks on this
subject, with a design to shew that religion, as it
implies a belief of certain principles, and a peculiar
method of worshipping God, said to be contained in
revelation, is a purely personal matter ; and that
every man ought to be persuaded in his own mind,
of the nature of its proofs, and doctrines, and prin-
ciples, and to dissent from the public establishment,
if he finds it erroneous in any, or every, article of
its belief; since no man is to be saved or damned
hereafter, for the faith or practice of his superiors
in church or state, and because neither nature nor
revelation hath given them, nor can give them, a
right or power to judge or believe for others*
In 1728, he published, " A Vindication of the
antiquity and authority of Daniel's prophecies, and
their application to Jesus Christ ; in answer to the
objections of the author of the Scheme of literal
prophecy considered." " Among other prophecies
of the Old Testament, which the author of the
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER. 9
4 Literal Scheme' would not allow to have any literal
reference to the Messiah, he reckoned those of Da-
niel ; and to make out this the more clearly, he
began with endeavouring to prove, that they are no
prophecies at all ; that the book of Daniel was not
written by the famous Daniel mentioned by Ezekiel ;
and that it contains a manifest reference to, or rather,
an history of, things done several hundred years
after that Daniel's time. This attempt' to depre-
ciate the authority and antiquity of a book, which
our author esteemed a noble testimony to the truth
of Christianity, induced him to try whether the
* Literal Schematisms' criticisms were just, and his
arguments conclusive; with which view he enters
into a particular examination of the Eleven Objec-
tions, wherein Mr. Collins had comprised what he
had to urge against the book ; and, upon the whole,
he concludes, that these objections are of no weight,
and therefore do not deserve any regard from the
thinking and impartial part of mankind. He then
produces some distinct arguments to prove the
proper antiquity of Daniel's book ; and having so
far established its authority, he proceeds to the con-
sideration of the several prophecies contained in it,
in order to obviate the exceptions of Mr. Collins
against the Christian interpretation of them, and at
the same time to shew, that the explications wThich
this writer would substitute in their stead, are
founded on palpable mistakes, and consequently
false ; all which he has executed with great learning
and acuteness."
Mr. Chandler had a strong conviction of the
pernicious nature, and dangerous tendency, of the
c
10
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
Romish religion, and was desirous of exposing the
persecuting spirit by which that church has been so
much characterised : and it was with this view that
he published, in 1731, in two volumes, 4to., a
translation of " The history of the inquisition, by
Philip a Limborch:" to which he prefixed, " A large
introduction, concerning the rise and progress of
persecution, and the real and pretended causes of
it." In this introduction Mr. Chandler says, " I
wdll not deny, but that the appointing persons, whose
peculiar office it should be to minister in the exter-
nal services of public and social worship, is, when
under proper regulations, of advantage to the de-
cency and order of divine service. But then I
think it of the most pernicious consequence to the
liberties of mankind, and absolutely inconsistent
with the true prosperity of a nation, as well as with
the interest and success of rational religion, to suffer
such ministers to become the directors-general of
the consciences and faith of others, or publicly to
assume, and exercise such, a power, as shall oblige
others to submit to their determinations, without
being convinced of their being wise and reasonable,
and never to dispute their spiritual decrees. The
very claim of such a power is the highest insolence,
and an affront to the common sense and reason of
mankind ; and wherever it is usurped and allowed,
the most abject slavery both of soul and body is
almost the unavoidable consequence. For by such
a submission to spiritual power, the mind and con-
science is actually enslaved; and by being thus
rendered passive to the priest, men are naturally
prepared for a servile subjection to the prince, and
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
11
for becoming slaves to the most arbitrary and tyran-
nical government. And I believe it hath been
generally found true by experience, that the same
persons who have asserted their own power over
others, in matters of religion and conscience, have
also asserted the absolute power of the civil magis-
trate, and been the avowed patrons of those admirable
doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance for
the subject. " At the close of this piece our author
observes, that the use of the view which he had
given of the rise and progress of persecution, was,
" to teach men to adhere close to the doctrines and
words of Christ and his apostles, to argue for the
doctrines of the gospel with meekness and charity,
to introduce no new terms of salvation and Christian
communion, not to trouble the Christian church
with metaphysical subtilties and abstruse questions,
that minister to quarrelling and strife, not to pro-
nounce censures, judgments, and anathemas, upon
such as may differ from us in speculative truths, not
to exclude men from the rights of civil society, nor
lay them under any negative or positive discourage-
ments for conscience sake, or for their different
usages and rites in the externals of Christian wor-
ship ; but to remove those which are already laid,
and which are as much a scandal to the authors and
continuers of them, as they are a burden to those
who labour under them.'9 This piece was written
with great learning cuteness, but was attacked
by Dr. Berriman, in a pamphlet, entitled, " Brief
remarks on Mr. Chandler's introduction to the
history of the inquisition." Our author published,
in the form of a letter, an answer to these Remarks,
c 2
12 LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
in which he defended himself with great spirit.
This engaged Dr. Berriman to write " A Review of
his remarks ;" to which Mr. Chandler replied, in
" A second letter to William Berriman, D. D. &c.
in which his Review of his remarks on the intro-
duction to the history of the inquisition is consi-
dered, and the characters of St. Athanasius, and
Martyr Laud, are farther stated and supported."
This publication was soon followed by another, en-
titled, " A Vindication of a passage of the Right
Reverend the Lord Bishop of London, in his second
pastoral letter, against the misrepresentations of
William Berriman, D. D. in a letter to his lord-
ship ;" and here the controversy ended. As our
author had the firmest persuasion, that there was
nothing in the principles of protestant dissenters
which rendered them unfit to hold offices in the
state, or in corporations, and that it was a manifest
injustice to deprive them of the common rights of
citizens, he likewise published, in 1732, in 8vo.,
" The dispute better adjusted about the proper
time of applying for a repeal of the Corporation
and Test Acts, by shewing that some time is pro-
per ; in a letter to the author of the Dispute
adjusted, viz. the Right Reverend Dr. Edmund
Gibson, Lord Bishop of London."
Among other learned and useful designs which
Mr. Chandler had formed, he began a Commentary
on the Prophets ; and in 1735, he published, in 4to.,
" A Paraphrase and critical commentary on the
prophecy of Joel ;" which he dedicated to the Right
Honourable Arthur Onslow, Esq. Speaker of the
House of Commons. He afterwards proceeded a
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
13
great way in the prophecy of Isaiah ; but before he
had completed it, he met with the MS. lexicon and
lectures of the famous Arabic professor Schultens,
who much recommends explaining the difficult words
and phrases of the Hebrew language, by comparing
them with the Arabic. With this light before him,
Mr. Chandler determined to study the Hebrew anew,
and to drop his commentary till he should thus have
satisfied himself, that he had attained the genuine
sense of the sacred writings. But this suspension
of his design prevented the completion of it ; for
engagements of a different kind intervened, and he
never finished any other commentary on the pro-
phets. He continued, however, to publish a variety
of learned works, and displayed a very laudable zeal
in support of religious liberty, and of the truth of
divine revelation.
In 1736, he published, in 8vo., " The History of
Persecution, in four parts; viz. I. Amongst the hea-
thens. II. Under the Christian emperors. III. Un-
der the papacy and inquisition. IV. Amongst
protestants. With a preface, containing remarks
on Dr. Rogers's Vindication of the civil establish-
ment of religion."* In 1741, appeared, in 8vo.,
" A Vindication of the history of the Old Testa-
ment , in answer to the misrepresentations and
calumnies of Thomas Morgan, M. D. and Moral
Philosopher." Dr. Leland observes, that in this
work of our author he has clearly proved, that
Morgan " hath been guilty of manifest falsehoods,
and of the most gross perversions of the scripture
history, even in those very instances in which he
assures his reader he has kept close to the ac-
14 LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER,
counts given by the Hebrew historians." He like-
wise published, in opposition to the same writer, in
1742, "A Defence of the prime ministry and cha-
racter of Joseph."
In 1744, Mr. Chandler published, in 8vo., " The
witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ re-
examined, and their testimony proved entirely con-
sistent." This was a very important controversy,
which was at that time much agitated ; and Dr. Le-
land, who stiles our author's piece upon the subject
" a valuable treatise," observes, that, in his last
chapter, " he hath summed up the evidence for the
resurrection of Jesus with great clearness and judg-
ment." In 1748, he published, in 8vo., " The
case of subscription to explanatory articles of faith,
as a qualification for admission into the christian
ministry, calmly and impartially reviewed; in
answer to, 1. A late pamphlet, entitled, The
Church of England vindicated, in requiring sub-
scription from the clergy to the Thirty-nine Articles.
2. The Rev. Mr. John White's Appendix to his
third letter to a dissenting gentleman. To which is
added, The speech of the Rev. John Alphonso
Turretine, previous to the abolition of all subscrip-
tion at Geneva, translated from a manuscript in the
French." His writings having procured him a high
reputation for learning and abilities, he. might easily
have obtained a doctor's degree in divinity, and
offers of that kind were made him ; but for some
time he declined the acceptance of a diploma, and,
as he once said, in the pleasantness of conversation,
because so many blockheads had been made doctors.
However, upon making a visit to Scotland, in com-
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER. 15
pany with his friend, the Earl of Finlater and
Seafield, he, with great propriety, accepted of this
honour, which was conferred upon him without soli-
citation, and with every mark of respect, by the
two universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He
had, likewise, the honour of being afterwards elected
a fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Society
of Antiquaries.
On the death of King George the Second, in
1760, Dr. Chandler published a sermon on that
event, in which he compared that prince to King
David. This gave rise to a pamphlet, which was
printed in the year 1761, entitled, " The history
of the man after God's own heart •," wherein the
author ventured to exhibit King David as an exam-
ple of perfidy, lust, and cruelty, fit only to be ranked
with a Nero, or a Caligula ; and complained of the
insult that had been offered to the memory of the
late British monarch, by Dr. Chandler's parallel
between him and the King of Israel. This attack
occasioned Dr. Chandler to publish, in the following
year, " A Review of the history of the man after
God's own heart ; in which the falsehoods and
misrepresentations of the historian are exposed and
corrected." In this performance our author, though
he could not defend the character of the Jewish
prince from all the accusations that were brought
against him, yet sufficiently cleared him from many
of them. His learning and sagacity also appeared
to great advantage in this piece; and his skill in the
Hebrew language, and his extensive acquaintance
with biblical learning, enabled him to correct a va-
riety of mistakes into which his opponent had fallen,
16 LIFE OF DR. CHANDLEK.
from his taking many things as he found them in our
common English translation, without paying any
regard to criticisms, various readings of particular
passages, or the opinions of expositors and commen-
tators. It must, however, be confessed, that in this
controversy Dr. Chandler expressed himself with
too much warmth and asperity, which was indeed
not unusual with him in his polemical writings.
But this being a subject on which he was determined
to enter into a full investigation, he prepared for
the press a more elaborate work, which was after-
wards published in two volumes, 8vo., under the
following title : " A Critical history of the life of
David : in which the principal events are ranged in
order of time : the chief objections of Mr. Bayle,
and others, against the character of this prince,
and the scripture account of him, and the occur-
rences of his reign, are examined and refuted ; and
the psalms which refer to him explained." As this
was the last, it was, likewise, one of the best of
Dr. Chandler's productions. We may safely assert,
that, in point of judgment, it is far superior to Dr.
'Delany's Life of King David, and that it is every
way equal to it with respect to literature. The ex-
planations of the psalms, which relate to the Jewish
monarch, are admirable ; and the commentary, in
particular, on the sixty-eighth psalm, is a master-
piece of criticism. The greatest part of this work
was printed off at the time of our author's death,
which happened on the 8th of May, 1766, in his
seventy-third year. During the last year of his life,
he was visited with frequent returns of a very painful
disorder, which he endured with great resignation
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER. 17
and Christian fortitude. He repeatedly declared,
" that to secure the divine felicity promised by
Christ, was the principal and almost the only thing
that made life desirable : that to attain this he would
gladly die, submitting himself entirely to God, as
to the time and manner of death, whose will was
most righteous and good ; and being persuaded,
that all was well, which ended well for eternity." He
was interred in the burying-ground at Bunhill-fields,
on the 16th of the month, and his funeral was very
honourably attended by ministers, and other gentle-
men. He expressly desired by his last will, that no
delineation of his character might be given in his
funeral sermon, which was preached by Dr. Amory.
In this sermon, Dr. Amory, after observing that he
was restrained from delineating Dr. Chandler's cha-
racter, by his desire expressed in his last will, says,
" He had indeed himself made this unnecessary; as
his masterly and animated defences of the great
doctrines of natural and revealed religion, had abun-
dantly manifested the uncommon greatness and
strength of his genius, the large extent and rich
variety of his learning, and the solid grounds on
which his faith was founded: together with his
hearty attachment to the cause of rational piety and
Christian liberty, and his abilities for defending them.
And after he had ministered for forty years in this
place, with so great reputation, it might appear su-
perfluous to inform any present, how full of exalted
sentiments of the Deity, how judicious and how
spirited his public prayers were, and how instructive
and animating his discourses." He had several
children ; two sons and a daughter who died before
D
18 tIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
him, and three daughters who survived him, and
both married; one of them to the Rev. Dr. Harwood.
Dr. Chandler was a man of very extensive learn-
ing, and eminent abilities ; his apprehension was
quick, and his judgment penetrating; he had a
warm and vigorous imagination ; he was a very in-
structive and animated preacher ; and his talents in
the pulpit, and as a writer, procured him very great
and general esteem, not only among the dissenters,
but among large numbers of the established church.
He was well known, and much respected by many
persons of the highest rank, and was offered consi-
derable preferment in the church ; Dr. Amory
says, that " the high reputation which he had
gained, by his defences of the Christian religion,
procured him from some of the governors of the
established church, the offers of considerable pre-
ferment, which he nobly declined. He valued
more than these the liberty and integrity of his
conscience ; and scorned for any worldly consi-
derations to profess as divine truths, doctrines
which he did not really believe, and to practise in
religion what he did not inwardly approve." But
he steadily rejected every proposition of that kind.
He was principally instrumental in the establish-
ment of the fund for relieving the widows and
orphans of poor protestant dissenting ministers :
the plan of it was first formed by him ; and it was
by his interest and application to his friends, that
many of the subscriptions for its support were pro-
cured.
In 1768, four volumes of our author's sermons
were published by Dr. Amory, according to his
LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER. 19
own directions in his last will ; to which was pre-
fixed a neat engraving of him, from an excellent
portrait by Mr. Chamberlin. He also expressed a
desire to have some of his principal pieces reprinted
in four volumes, octavo : proposals were accord-
ingly published for that purpose, but did not meet
with sufficient encouragement. But in 1777,
another work of our author was published, in one
volume, 4to, under the following title : " A Para-
phrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul to the
Galatians and Ephesians, with doctrinal and prac-
tical observations : together with a critical and
practical commentary on the two Epistles of St.
Paul to the Thessalonians." This work was pub-
lished from the author's own manuscript, which was
evidently intended for the press, by the Rev. Mr.
Nathaniel White, who succeeded him as pastor of
the congregation of protest ant dissenters in the Old
Jewry. That gentleman observes, in the preface to
this work, that " there seems to have been some-
thing in Dr. Chandler's genius and strength of
mind, as well as in the unremitted course of his
studies, which eminently fitted him to comment
upon the writings of St. Paul, and to follow that
deep and accurate reasoner, through his continued
chain of argument, so as to preserve the whole dis-
tinct and clear ; though, from the peculiar vigour
of the apostle's imagination, the fervour of his
affection, the compass of his thought, and the un-
common fulness of his matter, his epistles are re-
markable for sudden digressions, long parentheses,
remote connections, and unexpected returns to
subjects already discussed. These, added to many
D 2
20 LIFE OF DR. CHANDLER.
other circumstances common to ancient writings,
must necessarily occasion a considerable degree of
obscurity and difficulty, which it is the business of
the sacred expositor as much as possible to remove.
In this view, the distinguishing excellence of Dr.
Chandler's paraphrase seems to be, that the author
adheres most closely and constantly to the spirit
of the original, keeps the full idea of the inspired
writer, and only that, as far as he could apprehend
it, before him, and never steps aside to pick up any
hints, however ornamented, which are not directly
conveyed, or strongly implied by the apostle : so
that, not merely in the text, but in the paraphrase,
we find ourselves reading St. Paul himself, though
in a language more accommodated to our own
conception, and with an illustration which true
learning, deep attention to the subject, and un-
common critical sagacity enabled him to afford us."
" The notes will abundantly recommend the
work to the studious and judicious enquirer, who
will find no difficulties artfully evaded, or slightly
and superficially touched ; no unnecessary parade of
reading, though many striking proofs of the most
extensive and liberal erudition.'5 Dr. Chandler also
left, in his interleaved Bible, a large number of
critical notes, chiefly in Latin*
ACCOUNT OF DR. CHANDLER' S SISTER. 21
WE shall here add some particulars relative to
Mrs. Mary Chandler, sister to Dr. Chandler.
She was born at Malmsbury, in Wiltshire, in 1687,
and was carefully trained up in the principles of
religion and virtue. As her father's circumstances
rendered it necessary that she should apply herself
to some business, she was brought up to the trade
of a milliner. But as she had a propensity to lite-
rature, she employed her leisure hours in perusing
the best modern writers, and as many as she could
of the ancient ones, especially the poets, as far as the
best translations could assist her. Among these
Horace was her particular favourite, and she greatly
regretted that she could not read him in the original.
She was somewhat deformed in her person, in con-
sequence of an accident in her childhood. This
unfavourable circumstance she occasionally made
a subject of her own pleasantry, and used to say,
" that as her person would not recommend her, she
must endeavour to cultivate her mind, to make
herself agreeable." This she did with the greatest
care, being an admirable ceconomist of her time :
and it is said, that she had so many excellent
qualities in her, that though her first appearance
could create no prejudice in her favour, yet it
was impossible to know her without valuing and
esteeming her. She thought the disadvantage of
her shape was such, as gave her no reasonable pros-
pect of being happy in the married state, and there-
22 ACCOUNT* OF DR. CHANDLER'S SISTER.
fore chose to remain single. She had, however, an
honourable offer from a worthy country gentleman,
of considerable fortune, who, attracted merely by
the goodness of her character, took a journey of an
hundred miles to visit her at Bath, where she kept a
milliner's shop, and where he paid her his addresses.
But she declined his offers, and is said to have con-
vinced him, that such a match could neither be for
his happiness, nor her own. She published several
poems, but that which she wrote upon Bath was the
best received. It passed through several editions.
She intended to have written a large poem upon the
Wng and attributes of God, and did execute some
parts of it, but did not live to finish it. It was irk-
some to her to be so much confined to her business,
and the bustle of Bath was sometimes disagreeable to
her. She often languished for more leisure and soli-
tude ; but the dictates of prudence, and a desire to
be useful to her relations, whom she regarded with
the warmest affection, brought her to submit to the
fatigues of her business for thirty -five years. She
did, however, sometimes enjoy occasional retirements
to the country seats of some of her most respectable
acquaintance ; and was then extremely delighted
with the pleasures of solitude, and the contemplation
of the works of nature. She was honoured with the
esteem and regard of the Countess of Hertford, after-
wards Duchess of Somerset, who -several times
visited her. Mr. Pope also visited her at Bath, and
complimented her for her poem on that place. The
celebrated Mrs. Rowe was one of her particular
friends. She had the misfortune of a very valetu-
dinary constitution, which was supposed to be, in
ACCOUNT OF DR. CHANDLER'S SISTER. 23
some measure, owing to the irregularity of her form.
By the advice of Dr. Cheyne, she entered into the
vegetable diet, and adhered to it even to an ex-
treme. She died on the 11th September, 1745, in
the fifty-eighth year of her age, after about two
days illness.
the e
HISTORY
OF
PERSECUTION.
THE
INTRODUCTION.
Religion is a matter of the highest importance to every
man, and therefore there can be nothing which deserves a
more impartial inquiry, or which should be examined into
with a more disinterested freedom ; because as far as our
acceptance with the Deity depends on the knowledge and
practice of it, so far religion is, and must be, to us a purely
personal thing ; in which therefore we ought to be deter-
mined by nothing but the evidence of truth, and the rational
convictions of our mind and conscience. Without such an
examination and conviction, we shall be in danger of being;
imposed on by crafty and designing men, who will not fail
to make their gain of the ignorance and credulity of those
they can deceive, nor scruple to recommend to them the
worst principles and superstitions, if they find them con-
ducive or necessary to support their pride, ambition and
avarice. The history of almost all ages and nations is an
abundant proof of this assertion.
God himself, who is the object of all religious worship,
to whom we owe the most absolute subjection, and whose
actions are all guided by the discerned reason and fitness of
things, cannot, as I apprehend, consistent with his own most
perfect wisdom, require of his reasonable creatures the
explicit belief of, or actual assent to any proposition which
they do not, or cannot either wholly or partly understand ;
because it is requiring of them a real impossibility, no man
being able to stretch his faith beyond his understanding,
i. e. to see an object that was never present to his eyes, or
to discern the agreement or disagreement of the difFerent
parts of a proposition, the terms of which he hath ne\er
E 2
28 THE INTRODUCTION.
heard of, or cannot possibly understand. Neither can it be
supposed that God can demand from us a method of wor-
ship, of which we cannot discern some reason and fitness ;
because it would be to demand from us worship without
understanding and judgment, and without the concurrence
of the heart and conscience, i. e. a kind of worship different
from, and exclusive of that, which, in the nature of things,
is the most excellent and best, viz. the exercise of those
pure and rational affections, and that imitation of God by
purity of heart, and the practice of the virtues of a good life,
in which the power, substance, and efficacy of true religion
doth consist. If therefore nothing can or ought to be believ-
ed, but under the direction of the understanding, nor any
scheme of religion and worship to be received but what
appears reasonable in itself, and worthy of God ; the neces-
sary consequence is, that every man is bound in interest and
duty to make the best use he can of his reasonable powers,
and to examine, without fear, all principles before he re-
ceives them, and all rites and means of religion and worship
before he submits to and complies with them. This is
the common privilege of human nature, which no man
ought ever to part with himself, and of which he cannot
be deprived by others, without the greatest injustice and
wickedness.
It will, I doubt not, appear evident beyond contradiction,
to all who impartially consider the history of past ages and
nations, that where and whenever men have been abridged,
or wholly deprived of this liberty, or have neglected to make
the due and proper use of it, or sacrificed their own private
judgments to the public conscience, or complimented the
licensed spiritual guides with the direction of them, ignorance
and superstition have proportionably prevailed ; and that to
these causes have been owing those great corruptions of
religion, which have done so much dishonour to God, and,
wherever they have prevailed, been destructive to the in-
terests of true piety and virtue. So that instead of serving
God with their reason and understanding, men have served
their spiritual leaders without either, and have been so far
THE INTRODUCTION. 29
from rendering themselves acceptable to their Maker, that
they have the more deeply, it is to be feared, incurred his
displeasure ; because God cannot but dislike the " sacrifice of
fools," and therefore of such who either neglect to improve
the reasonable powers he hath given them, or part with them
in compliance to the proud, ambitious, and ungodly claims
of others ; which is one of the highest instances of folly that
can possibly be mentioned.
I will not indeed deny, but that the appointing persons,
whose peculiar office it should be to minister in the external
services of public and social worship, is, when under proper
regulations, of advantage to the decency and order of divine
service. But then I think it of the most pernicious conse-
quence to the liberties of mankind, and absolutely incon-
sistent with the true prosperity of a nation, as well as with
the interest and success of rational religion, to suffer such
ministers to become the directors general of the consciences
and faith of others ; or publicly to assume and exercise
such a power, as shall oblige others to submit to their deter-
minations, without being convinced of their being wise and
reasonable, and never to dispute their spiritual decrees.
The very claim of such a power is the highest insolence, and
an affront to the common sense and reason of mankind ; and
wherever it is usurped and allowed, the most abject slavery,
both of soul and body, is almost the unavoidable conse-
quence. For by such a submission to spiritual power, the
mind and conscience is actually enslaved ; and, by being
thus rendered passive to the priest, men are naturally pre-
pared for a servile subjection to the prince, and for be-
coming slaves to the most arbitrary and tyrannical govern-
ment. And I believe it hath been generally found true by
experience, that the same persons who have asserted their
own power over others in matters of religion and conscience,
have also asserted the absolute power of the civil magistrate,
and been the avowed patrons of those admirable doctrines of
passive obedience and non-resistance for the subject. Our
own nation is sufficiently witness to the truth of this.
It is therefore but too natural to suspect, that the secret
30 THE INTRODUCTION.
intention of all ghostly and spiritual directors and guides in
decrying reason, the noblest gift of God, and without which
even the Being of a God, and the method of our redemption
by Jesus Christ, would be of no more significancy to us,
than to the brutes that perish, is in reality the advancement
of their own power and authority over the faith and con-
sciences of others, to which sound reason is, and ever will be
an enemy : for though I readily allow the great expediency
and need of divine revelation to assist us in our inquiries
into the nature of religion, and to give us a full view of the
principles and practices of it ; yet a very small share of
reason will suffice, if attended to, to let me know that my soul
is my own, and that I ought not to put my conscience out to
keeping to any person whatsoever, because no man can be an-
swerable for it to the great God but myself; and that there-
fore the claim of dominion, whoever makes it, either over mine
or any other's conscience, is mere imposture and cheat, that
hath nothing but impudence or folly to support it ; and as
truly visionary and romantic as the imaginary power of per-
sons disordered in their senses, and which would be of no more
significancy, and influence amongst mankind than theirs, did
not either the views of ambitious men, or the superstition
and foil)' of bigots encourage and support it.
On these accounts, it is highly incumbent on all nations,
who enjoy the blessings of a limited government, who would
preserve their constitution, and transmit it safe to posterity,
to be jealous of every claim of spiritual power, and not to
enlarge the authority and jurisdiction of spiritual men,
beyond the bounds of reason and revelation. Let them have
the freest indulgence to do good, and spread the knowledge
and practice of true religion, and promote peace and good will
amongst mankind. Let them be applauded and encouraged,
and even rewarded, when they are patterns of virtue, and ex-»
amples of real piety to their flocks. Such powers as these, God
and man would readily allow them ; and as to any other, I ap-
prehend they have little right to them, and am sure they have
seldom made a wise or rational use of them. On the contrary,
numberless have been the confusions and mischiefs intro-
THE INTRODUCTION 31
duced into the world, and occasioned by the usurpers of
spiritual authority. In the Christian church they have ever
used it with insolence, and generally abused it to oppression,
and the worst of cruelties. And though the history of such
transactions can never be a very pleasing and grateful task,
yet, I think, on many accounts, it may be useful and instruc-
tive ; especially as it may tend to give men an abhorrence
of all the methods of persecution, and put them upon their
guard against all those ungodly pretensions, by which per-
secution hath been introduced and supported.
But how much soever the persecuting spirit hath pre-
vailed amongst those who have called themselves Christians,
yet certainly it is a great mistake to confine it wholly to
them. We have instances of persons, who were left to the
light of nature and reason, and never suspected of being
perverted by any revelation, murdering and destroying each
other on the account of religion ; and of some judicially con-
demned to death for differing from the orthodox, i. c. the
established idolatry of their country. And I doubt not, but
that if we had as full and particular an account of the trans-
actions of the different religious sects and parties amongst the
Heathens, as we have of those amongst Christians, we should
find a great many more instances of this kind, than it is easy
or possible now to produce. However, there are some very
remarkable ones, which I shall not wholly omit.
THE
HISTORY OF PERSECUTION*
BOOK I.
OF PERSECUTION AMONGST THE HEATHENS UPON
ACCOUNT OF RELIGION.
SECT. I.
Abraham persecuted.
Ihere is a passage in the book of Judith1 which intimates
to us, that the ancestors of the Jews themselves were perse-
cuted upon account of their religion. Achior, captain of
the sons of Ammon, gives Holofernes this account of the
origin of that nation. " This people are descended of the
Chaldeans ; and they sojourned heretofore in Mesopotamia,
because they would not follow the gods of their fathers,
which were in the land of Chaldea ; for they left the way of
their ancestors, and worshipped the God of heaven, the
God whom they knew. So they cast them out from the
face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia, and
sojourned there many days." St. Austin* and Marsham*
(1) Cap. 5. v. €, &c. (3) March. Cron. § 5.
(2) De civit. Dei, 1. 16. c. IS.
34 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
both take notice of this tradition ; which is farther con-
firmed by all the oriental historians, who, as the learned
Dr. Hyde1 tells us, unanimously affirm, that Abraham suf-
fered many persecutions upon the account of his opposition
to the idolatry of his country ; and that he was particularly
imprisoned for it by Nimrod in Ur. Some of the eastern
writers also tell us, that he was thrown into the fire, but that
lie was miraculously preserved from being- consumed in it
by God. This tradition also the Jews believed, and is
particularly mentioned by Jonathan3 in his Targum upon
Gen. xi. 28. " Nimrod threw Abraham into a furnace of
lire, because he would not worship his idol ; but the lire had
no power to burn him." So early doth persecution seem
to have begun against the worshippers of the true God.
SECT. II.
Socrates persecuted amongst the Greeks, and others.
*Socrates,3 who, in the judgment of an oracle, was the
wisest man living, was persecuted by the Athenians 'on the
account of his religion, and, when past seventy years of age,
brought to a public trial, and condemned. His accusation
was principally this : " That he did unrighteously and
curiously search into the great mysteries of heaven and
earth ; that he corrupted the youth, and did not esteem the
gods worshipped by the city to be really gods, and that he
introduced new deities." This last part of his accusation
was undoubtedly owing to his inculcating upon them more
* See note [A] at the end of the volume.
(1) De Relig. Pers. c. 2.
(2) Hotting. Sraeg. Orient, p. 290, &c.
(s) Plat, in Apolog. pro Socrate. Diog. Laert. in vit. Soc,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 35
rational and excellent conceptions of the Deity, than were
allowed by the established creeds of his country, and to his
arguing against the corruptions and superstitions which he
saw universally practised by the Greeks. This was called
corrupting the youth who were his scholars, and what,
together with his superior wisdom, raised him many enemies
amongst all sorts of people, who loaded him with reproaches,
and spread reports concerning him greatly to his disadvan-
tage, endeavouring thereby to prejudice the minds of his
very judges against him. When he was brought to his trial,
several of his accusers were never so much as named or
discovered to him; so that, as he himself complained, he
was, as it were, fighting with a shadow, when he was
defending himself against his adversaries, because he knew
not whom he opposed, and had no one to answer him.
However, he maintained his own innocence with the noblest
resolution and courage ; shewed he was far from corrupting
the youth, and openly declared that he believed the Being
of a God. And, as the proof of this his belief, he bravely
said to his judges ; " that though he was very sensible of his
danger from the hatred and malice of the people, yet that,
as he apprehended, God himself had appointed him to teach
his philosophy, so he should grievously offend him should
he forsake his station through fear of death, or any other
evil ; and that for such a disobedience to the Deity, they
might more justly accuse him, as not believing- there were
any gods :" adding, as though he had somewhat of the
same blessed spirit that afterwards rested on the apostles of
Christ, " that if they would dismiss him upon the condition
of not teaching his philosophy any more, 6 I will obey God
rather than you, and teach my philosophy as long as I live'."
However, notwithstanding the goodness of his cause and
defence, he was condemned for impiety and atheism, and
ended his life with a draught of poison, dying a real martyr
for God, and the purity of his worship. Thus we see that
in the ages of natural reason and light, not to be orthodox,
or to differ from the established religion, was the same thing
f2
36 THE HISTORY C-F PERSECUTION.
as to be impious and atheistical ; and that one of the wisest
and best men that ever lived in the heathen world was put
to death merely on account of his religion. The Athenians,
indeed, afterwards repented of what they had done, and
condemned one of his accusers, Melitus, to death, and the
others to banishment.
I must add, in justice to the laity, that the judges and
accusers of Socrates were not priests. Melitus was a poet,
Anytus an artificer, and Lycon an orator ; so that the pro-
secution was truly laic, and the priests do not appear to
have had any share in his accusation, condemnation, and
death. Nor, indeed, was there any need of the assistance of
priestcraft in this affair, the prosecution of this excellent man
being- perfectly agreeable to the constitution and maxims of
the Athenian government ; which had, to use the words of a
late reverend author,1 " incorporated or made religion a part
of the laws of the civil community." One of the Attic laws
was to this effect : " Let it be a perpetual law, and binding at
all times, to worship our national gods and heroes publicly,
according to the laws of our ancestors." So that no new
gods, nor new doctrines about old gods, nor any new
rites of worship, could be introduced by any person whatso-
ever, without incurring the penalty of this law, which was
death. Thus Josephus tells us,z that it was prohibited by
law to teach new gods, and that the punishment ordained
against those who should introduce any such, was death.
Agreeably to this, the orator Isocrates,3 pleading in the
grand council of Athens, puts them in mind of the custom
and practice of their ancestors : u This was their principal care
to abolish nothing they had received from their fathers in
matters of religion, nor to make any addition to what they
had established." And therefore, in his advice to Nicocles, he
exhorts him to be " of the same religion with his ancestors."
(1) Dr. Rogers's Vindication of the Civil Establishment, &c.
(2) Cont. Apion. 1. 2. c. 37. Edit. Haverc.
(3) Isoc. Areop.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 37
So that the civil establishment of religion in Athens was
entirely exclusive, and no toleration whatsoever allowed to
those who differed from it. On this account, the philoso-
phers1 in general were, by a public decree, banished from
Athens, as teaching heterodox opinions, and " corrupting the
youth" in matters of religion ; and, by a law, very much
resembling the famous modern Schism Bill, prohibited from
being masters and teachers of schools, without leave of the
senate and people, even under pain of death. This law,
indeed, like the other, was but very short-lived, and Sopho-
cles, the author of it, punished in a fine of five talents.
Lysimachus* also banished them from his kingdom. It is
evident from these things, that, according to the Athenian
constitution, Socrates was legally condemned for not believ-
ing in the gods of his country, and presuming to have better
notions of the Deity than his superiors. In like manner,
a certain woman,3 a priestess, was put to death, upon an
accusation of her introducing new deities.
Diogenes Laertius4 tells us, that Anaxagoras, the philoso-
pher, was accused of impiety, because he affirmed, that " the
sun was a globe of red-hot iron ;" which was certainly great
heresy, because his country worshipped him as a god.
Stilpos was also banished his country, as the same writer
tells us, because he denied "Minerva to be a god, allowing her
only to be a goddess." A very deep and curious controversy
this, and worthy the cognizance of the civil magistrate.
Diagoras6 was also condemned to death, and a talent de-
creed to him that should kill him upon his escape, being ac-
cused of " deriding the mysteries of the gods." Protagoras
also would have suffered death, had he not fled his country,
because he had written something about the gods, that
differed from the orthodox opinions of the Athenians. Upon
(1) Athen. p. 610. Edit. Casaub. (4) In vit. Anax.
Diog. Laert. I. 5. Segm. 38. (5) 1. 5. c. 38.
(2) Athen. p. 610., ' (6) Joseph, ibid. Athen. p. 611.
(3) Jos. ibid.
38 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
the same account, Theodorus, called Athens, and Theoti-
mus,1 who wrote against Epicurus, being accused by Zeno,
an Epicurean, were both put to death.
The Lacedemonians2 constantly expelled foreigners, and
would not suffer their own citizens to dwell in foreign parts,
because they imagined that both the one and the other
tended to corrupt and weaken their own laws ; nor would
they suffer the teaching of rhetoric or philosophy, because
of the quarrels and disputes that attended it. The Scythians,
who delighted in human blood, and were, as Josephus says,*
little different from beasts, yet were zealously tenacious of
their own rites, and put Anacharsis, a very wise person, to
death, because he seemed to be very fond of the Grecian
rites and ceremonies. *Herodotus4 says, that he was shot
through the heart with an arrow, by Saulius their king, for
sacrificing to the mother of the gods after the manner of the
Grecians ; and that Scyles, another of their kings, was
deposed by them, for sacrificing to Bacchus, and using the
Grecian ceremonies of religion, and his head afterwards cut
off by Octamasades, who was chosen king in his room. "So
rigid were they," says the historian,5 " in maintaining their
own customs, and so severe in punishing the introducers of
foreign rites." Many also amongst the Persians6 were put to
death, on the same account. And, indeed, it was almost the
practice of all nations to punish those who disbelieved or
derided their national gods ; as appears from Timocles,
who, speaking of the gods of the Egyptians,7 says, " How
shall the ibis, or the dog, preserve me ?" And then adds,
" Where is the place that doth not immediately punish those
who behave impiously towards the gods, such as are con-
fessed to be gods ?"
* See note [B] at the end of the volume.
- (l) Athen. ibid. (5) Id. p. 248.
(2) Joseph, ibid. § 36. Athen. ibid. (6) Joseph, ibid..
(8) Joseph. § 37. (7) Athen. p. 300.,
(4) Herodot. Melpom. p. 246.
Edit. Gronov.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 39
SECT. III.
Egyptian persecutions.
Juvenal1 gives us a very tragical account of some dis-
putes and quarrels about religion amongst the Egyptians,
who entertained an eternal hatred and enmity against each
other, and eat and devoured one another, because they did
not all worship the same god.
"aOmbos and Tentyr, neighbouring towns, of late,
Broke into outrage of deep fester'd hate.
Religious spite and pious spleen bred first
This quarrel, winch so long the bigots nurst.
Each calls the other's god a senseless stock,
His own, divine, tho* from the self-same block.
At first both parties in reproaches jar,
And make their tongues the trumpets of the war.
Words serve but to inflame the warlike lists,
Who wanting weapons clutch their horny fists.
Yet thus make shift t* exchange such furious blows,
Scarce one escapes with more than half a nose.
Some stand their ground with half their visage gone,
But with the remnant of a face fight on.
Such transformed spectacles of horror grow,
That not a mother her own son would know,
One eye remaining for the other spies,
Which now on earth a trampled gelly lies.'*
All this religious zeal hitherto is but mere sport and
childish play, and therefore they piously proceed to farther
violences ; to hurling of stones, and throwing of arrows, till
(1) Satyr. 15. See also Joseph, cont. Ap. 1. 2. § 6.
(2) Englished by Mr. Dry den, &c.
40 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
one party routs the other, and the conquerors feast them-
selves on the mangled bodies of their divided captives.
c* Yet hitherto both parties think the fray-
But mockery of war, mere children's play.
This whets their rage, to search for stones
An Ombite wretch (by headlong strait betray'd,
And falling down i'th' rout) is prisoner made.
Whose flesh torn off by lumps the ravenous foe
In morsels cut, to make it farther go.
His bones clean pick'd, his very bones they gnaw ;
No stomach's balk'd, because the corps is raw.
T* had been lost time to dress him : keen desire
Supplies the want of kettle, spit, and fire."
Plutarch1 also relates, that in his time some of the Egyp-
tians who worshipped a dog, eat one of the fishes, which
others of the Egyptians adored as their deity ; and that
upon this, the fish eaters laid hold on the other Ts dogs, and
sacrificed and eat them ; and that this gave occasion to a
bloody battle, in which a great number were destroyed on
both sides.
SECT. IV.
Persecutions by Antiochus Ephiphanes.
Antiochus Epiphanes, though a very wicked prince,
yet was a great zealot for his religion, and endeavoured to
propagate it by all the methods of the most bloody persecu-
tion. Josephus* tells us, that after he had taken Jerusalem,
(1) De Isid. et Osir. p. 380. Edit. Franc.
(2) Antiq. Jud. 1. 12. c. 5,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION: 41
and plundered the temple, he caused an altar to be built in
it, upon which he sacrificed swine, which were an abomina-
tion to the Jews, and forbidden by their laws. Not content
with this, he compelled them to forsake the worship of the
true God, and to worship such as he accounted deities ;
building altars and temples to them in all the towns and
streets, and offering swine upon them every day. He com-
manded them to forbear circumcising- their children, griev-
ously threatening such as should disobey his orders. He
also appointed overseers, or bishops, to compel the Jews to
come in, and do as he had ordered them. Such as rejected
it, were continually persecuted, and put to death, with the
most grievous tortures. He ordered them to be cruelly
scourged, and their bodies to be tore, and, before they
expired under their tortures, to be crucified. The women,
and the children which they circumcised, were, by his com-
mand, hanged ; the children hanging from the necks of their
crucified parents. Wherever he found any of the sacred
books, or of the law, he destroyed them, undoubtedly to
prevent the propagation of heretical opinions, and punished
with death such as kept them. The same author tells us
also, in his History of the Maccabees, that Antiochus put
forth an edict, whereby he made it death for any to observe
the Jewish religion, and compelled them, by tortures, to
abjure it. The inhuman barbarities he exercised upon
Eleazar and the Maccabees, because they wrould not re-
nounce their religion, and sacrifice to his Grecian gods, are
not, in some circumstances, to be paralleled by any histories
of persecution extant ; and will ever render the name and
memory of that illustrious tyrant execrable and infamous.
It was on the same religious account that he banished the
philosophers1 from all parts of his kingdom ; the charge
against them being, u their corrupting the youth," i. e. teach-
ing them notions of the gods, different from the common
(l) Athen. 1. 12. c. 12.
42 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
orthodox opinions which were established by law ; and com-
manded Phanias, that such youths as conversed with them
should be hanged.
SECT. V.
Persecutions under the Romans,
The very civil constitution of Rome was founded upon
persecuting* principles. ^Tertullian1 tells us, " that it was
an ancient decree that no emperor should consecrate a new
god, unless he was approved by the senate ;•" and one of
the standing* laws of the republic was to this effect, as
Cicero 2 gives it : u that no one should have separately new
gods, no nor worship privately foreign gods, unless admitted
by the commonwealth." This law he endeavours to vindi-
cate by reason and the light of nature, by adding,3 "that for
persons to worship their own, or new, or foreign gods,
would be to introduce confusion and strange ceremonies in
religion." So true a friend was this eminent Roman, and
great master of reason, to uniformity of worship ; and so
little did he see the equity, and indeed necessity of an uni-
versal toleration in matters of religion. Upon this princi-
ple, after he had reasoned well against the false notions of
God that had obtained amongst his countrymen, and the
public superstitions of religion, he concludes with what was
enough to destroy the force of all his arguments :4 " It is the
part of a wise man to defend the customs of his ancestors,
by retaining their sacred rites and ceremonies." Thus narrow
was the foundation of the Roman religion, and thus incon-
* See note [C] at the end of the volume.
(1) Apol. c. 2. (s) De Leg. 1. 2. c. 10.
(2) De Leg. 1. 2. (4) De Divin. 1. 2. fin.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 4tf
.sistent the sentiments of the wisest heathens with all the
principles of toleration and universal liberty.
And agreeable to this settlement they constantly acted.
A remarkable instance of which w c have in Livy, the Roman
historian ; he teils ns,1 " that such a foreign religion spread
itself over the city, that either men or the gods seemed
entirely changed ; that the Roman rites were not only for-
saken in private, and within the houses, but that even pub-
licly, in the forum and capitol, great numbers of women
flocked together, who neither sacrificed nor prayed to the
gods, according to the manner of their ancestors. This
first excited the private indignation of good men, till at
length it reached the fathers, and became a public com-
plaint. The senate greatly blamed the iEdiles and capital
Triumvirs, that they did not prohibit them ; and when they
endeavoured to drive away the multitude from the forum,
and to throw down the things they had provided for per-
forming their sacred rites, they were like to be torn in
pieces. And when the evil grew too great to be cured by
inferior magistrates, the senate ordered M. Atilius, the
praetor of the city, to prevent the people's using these reli-
gions." He accordingly published this decree of the senate,
that u whoever had any fortune -telling books, or prayers, or
ceremonies about sacrifices written down, they should bring
all such books and writings to him, before the calends of
April ; and that no one should use any new or foreign rite
of sacrificing in any public or sacred place."
Mecenas,* in his Advice to Augustus, says to him: "Per-
form divine worship in all things exactly according to the
custom of your ancestors, and compel others to do so also ;
and as to those who make any innovations in religion, hate
and punish them; and that not only for the sake of the gods,
but because those who introduce new deities, excite others
to make changes in civil affairs. Hence conspiracies, sedi-
(i) Lib. 25 c. l (2) Apud Dion. Cassiiim, 1. 52,
G 2
44 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
tions, and riots, things very dangerous to government."
Accordingly Suetonius, in his life of this prince,1 gives hinv
this character: " that though he religiously observed the
ancient prescribed ceremonies, yet he contemned all other
foreign ones ; and commended Caius, for that passing by
Judea, he would not pay his devotions at Jerusalem." He
also, as the same author tells us,z made a law, \ery much
resembling our test act, by which he commanded, u that
before any of the senators should take their places in
council, they should offer frankincense and wine upon the
altar of that god in whose temple they met." It was no
wonder therefore that Christianity, which was so perfectly
contrary to the whole system of pagan theology, should be
looked upon with an evil eye ; or that when the number of
Christians increased, they should incur the displeasure of
the civil magistrate, and the censure of the penal laws that
were in force against them.
The first public persecution of them by the Romans was
begun by that monster of mankind, Nero ; who to clear him-
self of the charge of burning Rome, endeavoured to fix the
crime on the Christians ; and having thus falsely and tyran-
nically made them guilty, he put them to death by various
methods of exquisite cruelty. But though this was the
pretence for this barbarity towards them, yet it evidently
appears from undoubted testimonies, that they were before
hated upon account of their religion, and were therefore
fitter objects to fall a sacrifice to the resentment and fury of
the tyrant. For *Tacitus tells us,3 " that they were hated
for their crimes." And what these were, he elsewhere suffi-
ciently informs us, by calling their religion u an execrable
superstition." In like manner Suetonius, in his life of Nero,
speaking of the Christians, says, " they were a set of men
who had embraced a new and accursed superstition." And
* See note [D] at the end of the volume.
(1) Vit. Aug. c. 93. (3) Annal. 1. 1 5. c. 44. Ibid. cap. 16.
(2) Ibid, c. 85.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 45
therefore Tacitus farther informs us,1 that those who confes-
sed themselves Christians, " were condemned, not so much
for the crime of burning the city, as for their being hated by
all mankind." So that it is evident from these accounts,
that it was through popular hatred of them for their religion,
that they were thus sacrificed to the malice and fury of Nero.
Many of them he dressed up in the skins of wild beasts, that
they might be devoured by dogs. Others he crucified. Some
he cloathed in garments of pitch and burnt them, that by
their flames he might supply the absence of the day-light.
The persecution begun by Nero was revived, and carried
on by Domitian, who put some to death, and banished others
upon account of their religion. Eusebius mentions Flavia
Domitilla,2 neice to Flavius Clemens, then consul, as
banished for this reason to the island Pontia. Dion the
liistorian's account of this affair is somewhat different. He
tell us,3 "ihat Fabius Clemens, the consul, Domitian's cousin,
who had married Flavia Domitilla, a near relation of Domi-
tian, was put to death by him, and Domitilla banished to
Pandataria, being both accused of atheism ; and that on the
same account many who had embraced the Jewish rites
were likewise condemned, some of whom were put to death,
and others had their estates confiscated." I think this
account can belong to no other but the Christians, whom
Dion seems to have confounded with the Jews ; a mistake
into which he and others might naturally fall, because the
first Christians were Jews, and came from the land of Judea.
The crime, with which these persons were charged, was
atheism ; the crime commonly imputed to Christians, be-
cause they refused to worship the Roman deities. And as
there are no proofs, that Domitian ever persecuted the Jews
upon account of their religion, nor any intimation of this
nature in Josephus, who finished his Antiquities towards the
latter end of Domitian's reign ; I think the account of
(l) Annal. 1. 15. c. 44. (3) 1. 67, 111 Domit.
(2)E. H.l. 3. c. 17,18.
46 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Eusebius, which he declares he took from writers, who were
far from being friends to Christianity, is preferable to that
of Dion's; and that therefore these persecutions by Domi-
tian were upon account of Christianity. However,' they
did not last long ; for as Eusebius tells us,* he put p. stop to
them hj an edict in their favour. Tertullian* also affirms
the same ; and adds, that he recalled those whom he had
banished. So that though this is reckoned by ecclesiastical
writers as the second persecution, it doth not appear to
have been general, or very severe. Domitian3 also ex-
pelled all the philosophers from Rome and Italy.
Under Trajan, otherwise a most excellent prince, began
the third persecution, in the 14th year of his reign. In
answer to a letter of Pliny, he ordered : " that the Chris-
tians should not be sought after, but that if they were
accused and convicted of being Christians they should be
punished ; such only excepted as should deny themselves to
be Christians, and give an evident proof of it by wor-
shipping his gods." These were to receive pardon upon
this their repentance, how much soever they might have
been suspected before. From this imperial rescript it is
abundantly evident, that this persecution of the Christians by
Trajan was purely on the score of their religion, because he
orders, that whosoever was accused and convicted of being
a Christian should be punished with death, unless he
renounced his profession, and sacrificed to the gods. All
that was required, says Tertullian,4 was <* merely to confess
the name, without any cognizance being taken of any
crime." Pliny himself, in his letter to the emperor, ac-
quits them of every thing of this nature, and tells him,
" that all they acknowledged was, that their whole crime
or error consisted in this, that at stated times they were
used to meet before day-light, and to sing an hymn to
Christ as God ; and that they bound themselves by an
(1) E. H. I. 3. c. 20. (3) Suet, in vit. Domit. c. 10.
(2) Apol, c. 5. (4) Apol. c. 2.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 47
oath not to commit any wickedness, such as thefts, rob-
beries, adulteries, and the like." And to be assured of the
truth of this, he put two maids to the torture, and after
examining- them, found them guilty of nothing- but "a wicked
and unreasonable superstition." This is the noblest vindi-
cation of the purity and innocency of the Christian assemblies,
and abundantly justifies the account of Eusebius,1 from
Hegesippus : " that the church continued until these times
as a virgin pure and uncorrupted ;" and proves beyond all
contradiction, that the persecution raised against them was
purely on a religious account, and not for any immoralities
and crimes against the laws, that could be proved against
the Christians ; though their enemies slandered them with
the vilest, and hereby endeavoured to render them hateful
to the whole world. "Why," says Tertullian,2 " doth a
Christian suffer, but for being of their number ? Hath any-
one proved incest, or cruelty upon us, during this long
space of time ? No ; it is for our innocence, probity, justice,
chastity, faith, veracity, and for the living God that we are
burnt alive." Pliny was forced to acquit them from every-
thing but " an unreasonable superstition," L e. their resolute
adherence to the faith of Christ. And yet, though innocent
in all other respects, when they were brought before his
tribunal, he treated them in this unrighteous manner : he
only asked them, whether they were Christians ? If they con-
fessed it, he asked them the same question again and again,
adding threatenings to his questions. If they persevered in
their confession, he condemned them to death, because what-
ever their confession might be, he was very sure, " that
their stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy deserved punish-
ment." So that without being convicted of any crime, but
that of constancy in their religion, this equitable heathen,
this rational philosopher, this righteous judge, condemns
them to a cruel death. And for this conduct the emperor,
his master, commends him. For "in answer to Pliny's ques-
(l) E. H. 1. 3. c. 32. (2) Ad Scapul.
48 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION
tion, " Whether he should go on to punish the name itself,,
though chargeable with no crimes, or the crimes only which
attended the name ?" Trajan in his rescript, after commend-
ing Pliny, orders, a that if they were accused and convicted
of being Christians, they should be put to death, unless they
renounced that name, and sacrificed to his gods." Tertuliian
and Athenagoras, in their Apologies, very justly inveigh
with great warmth against this imperial rescript ; and
indeed, a more shameful piece of iniquity was never
practised in the darkest times of popery. I hope also my
reader will observe, that this was lay-persecution, and owed
its rise to the religious zeal of one of the best of the Roman
emperors, and not only to the contrivances of cruel and
designing priests ; that it was justified and carried on by a
very famous and learned philosopher, whose reason taught
him, that what he accounted superstition, if incurable, was
to be punished with death ; and that it was managed with
great fury and barbarity, multitudes of persons in the several
provinces being destroyed merely on account of the Chris-
tian name, by various and exquisite methods of cruelty.
The rescript of Adrian, his successor, to Minutius Funda-
nus, pro-consul of Asia, seems to have somewhat abated the
fury of this persecution, though not wholly to have put an
end to it. Tertuliian tells us1 that Arrius Antoninus, after-
wards emperor, then pro-consul of Asia, when the Christians
came in a body before his tribunal, ordered some of them to
be put to death ; and said to others : " You wretches ! If
you will die, ye have precipices and halters." He also says,
that several other governors of provinces punished some
few Christians, and dismissed the rest ; so that the perse-
cution was not so general, nor severe as under Trajan.
Under Antoninus Pius the Christians were very cruelly
treated in some of the provinces of Asia, which occasioned
Justin Martyr to write his first Apology. It doth not, how-
ever, appear to have been done, either by the order or
(l) Ad Scap.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 4J)
consent of this emperor. On the contrary, he wrote letters
to the cities of Asia, and particularly to those of Larissa,
Thessalonica, Athens, and all the Greeks, that they should
create no new troubles to them. It is probable, that the
Asiatic cities persecuted them by virtue of some former
imperial edicts, which do not appear ever to have been
recalled j and, perhaps, with the connivance of Antoninus
Philosophus, the colleague and successor of Pius in the
empire.
Under him began, as it is generally accounted, the
fourth persecution, upon which Justin Martyr wrote his
second Apology, Meiiton his, and Athenagoras his Legation
or Embassy -for the Christians. Meiiton, as Eusebius relates
it,1 complains of it as " an almost unheard of thing, that
pious men were now persecuted, and greatly distressed by
new decrees throughout Asia ; that most impudent in-
formers, who were greedy of other persons' substance, took
occasion from the imperial edicts, to plunder others who
were entirely innocent." After this he humbly beseeches
the emperor, that he would not suffer the Christians to be
any longer used in so cruel and unrighteous a manner.
*Jtistin Martyr,2 in the account he gives of the martyrdom
of Ptolemaeus, assures us, that the only question asked him
was, " whether he was a Christian ?" And upon his con-
fession that he was, he was immediately ordered to the
slaughter. Lucius was also put to death for making the
same confession, and asking Urbicus the prefect, why he
condemned Ptolemy, who was neither convicted of adultery,
rape, murder, theft, robbery, nor of any other crime, but
only for owning himself to be a Christian. From these
accounts it is abundantly evident, that it was still the very
name of a Christian that was made capital ; and that these
cruelties were committed by an emperor who was a great
master of reason and philosophy ; not as punishments upon
* See note [Ej at the end of the volume. t
(1) E. H. 1. 4. e. 2$. (2) Apol 2**- c, 42. Edit. Thirlb.
H
50 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
offenders against the laws and public peace, but purely for
the sake of religion and conscience ; committed, to main-
tain and propagate idolatry, which is contrary to all the
principles of reason and philosophy, and upon persons of
great integrity and virtue in heart and life, for their adhe-
rence to the worship of one God, which is the foundation of
all true religion, and one of the plainest and most im-
portant articles of it. The tortures which the persecutors
of the Christians applied, and the cruelties they exercised
on them, enough, one would think, to have overcome the
firmest human resolution and patience, could never extort
from them a confession of that guilt their enemies would
gladly have fixed on them. And yet innocent as they were
in all respects, they were treated with the utmost indignity,
and destroyed by such inventions of cruelty, as were abhor-
rent to all the principles of humanity and goodness. They
were, indeed, accused of atheism, i* e. for not believing in,
and worshipping the fictitious gods of the heathens. This
was the cry of the multitude against *Polycarp :x " This is
the doctor of Asia, the father of the Christians, the sub-
verter of our gods, who teaches many that they must not
perform the sacred rites, nor worship our deities." This
was the reason of the tumultuous cry against him, a away
with these atheists." But would not one have imagined
that reason and philosophy should have informed the em-
peror, that this kind of atheism was a real virtue, and
deserved to be encouraged and propagated amongst man-
kind ? No : reason and philosophy here failed him, and his
blind attachment to his country's gods caused him to shed
much innocent blood, and to become the destroyer of " the
saints of the living God."2 At last, indeed, the emperor
seems to have been sensible of the great injustice of this
persecution, and by an edict ordered they should be no
longer punished for being Christians.
* See note [F] at the end of the volume,
(l) Euseb. E. H. 1. 4.-c. 15. (2) Id. I 4. c. IS.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 51
I i hail not trouble my reader with an account of this
persecution as carried on by Severus, Decius, Gallus,
Valerianus, Dioclesian, and others of the Roman emperors ;
but only observe in general, that the most excessive an 1
outrageous barbarities were made use of upon all who
would not blaspheme Christ, and offer incense to the im-
perial gods : they were publicly whipped : drawn by the
heels through the streets of cities ; racked till every bone
of their bodies was disjointed ; had their teeth beat out ;
their noses, hands and ears cut off; sharp pointed spears
ran under their nails ; were tortured with melted lead
thrown on their naked bodies ; had their eyes dug out ;
their limbs cut off; were condemned to the mines ; ground
between stones ; stoned to death ; burnt alive ; thrown
headlong from high buildings ; beheaded ; smothered in
burning lime-kilns ; ran through the body with sharp
spears ; destroyed with hunger, thirst, and cold ; thrown
to the wild beasts ; broiled on gridirons with slow fires ;
cast by heaps into the sea ; crucified ; scraped to death with
sharp shells ; torn in pieces by the boughs of trees ; and,
in a word, destroyed by all the various methods that the
most diabolical subtlety and malice could devise.
It must indeed be confessed, that under the latter em-
perors who persecuted the Christians, the simplicity and
purity of the Christian religion were greatly corrupted, and
that ambition, pride and luxury, had too generally pre-
vailed both amongst the pastors and people. *Cyprian,
who lived under the Decian persecution, writing concerning
it to the presbyters and deacons,1 says : " It must be owned
and confessed, that this outrageous and heavy calamity,
which hath almost devoured our flock, and continues to
devour it to this day, hath happened to us because of our
sins, since we keep not the way of the Lord, nor observe his
heavenly commands given to us for our salvation. Though
* See note [G] at the end of the volume.
(1) Epist. xi. Ed. Fell.
H 2
52 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION
our Lord did the will of his Father, yet we do not the will
of the Lord. Our principal study is to get money and
estates ; we follow after pride : we are at leisure for no-
thing but emulation and quarrelling ; and have neglected
the simplicity of the faith. We have renounced this world
in words only, and not in deed. Every one studies to
please himself, and to displease others.'' After Cyprian,
Eusebius the historian gives a sad account of the de-
generacy of Christians, about the time of the Dioclesian
persecution : he tells us,1 u That through too much liberty
they grew negligent and slothful, envying and reproaching
one another ; waging, as it were, crvil wars between them-
selves, bishops quarrelling with bishop, and the people
divided into parties :" that hypocr leeeit were grown
to the highest pitch of wickedness ; that they were become
so insensible, as not so much as to think of appeasing the
divine anger, but that, like atheists, they thought the world
destitute of any providential government and care, and
added one crime to another : that the bi
had thrown off all care of religion, were perpetually con-
tending with one another, and did nothing but quarrel with,
and threaten, and envy, and hate one another : were full of
ambition, and tyrannically used their power."' This was
the deplorable state of the Christian church, which God,
as Eusebius well observes, first punished with a gentle
hand ; but when they grew hardened and incurable in their
vices, he was pleased to let in the most grievous persecution
upon them, under Dioclesian, which exceeded in severity
and length all that had been before.
From these accounts it evidently appears, that the Chris-
tian world alone is not chargeable with the guilt of perse-
cution on the score of religion. It wa> practised long
before Christianity was in being, and first taught the
-tians by the persecuting heathens. The most emi-
nent philosophers espoused and vindicated persecuting
(l) E. H. I. 8. c. 1.
■
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. ->3
principles ; and emperors, otherwise excellent and jrood,
made no scruple of destroying multitude^ on a religious
account, such a< Trajan, andAurelius Vena, And I think
I may farther add, that the method of propagating rei:
by cruelty and death, ones its invention to lay policy and
craft ; and that how servilely soever the priesthood hath
thought fit to imitate them, yet that they have never ex-
ceeded them in rigour and severity. I can trace out the
foot-teps but of very few priests in the foregoing account- :
nor have I ever heard of more excessive crueltie- than those
practi-ed by Antiochus, the Egyptian heretic eaters, and the
Roman emperors. I may farther add on this important
article, that it is the laity who have put it in the power of
the priests to persecute, and rendered it worth their while
to do it : they have done it by the authority of the civil
well as employed lay hands to execute the drud-
gery of it. The emoluments of honours and riches that
have been annexed to the favourite religion and priesthood
is the establishment of civil society, whereby religion hath
been made extremely profitable, and the -gains of godli-
ness1' worth contending for. Had the laity been more
sparing in their grants, and their civil constitutions formed
upon the generous and equitable principle of an universal
toleration, persecution had never been heard of amongst
men. The priests would have wanted not only the power,
but the inclination to persecute ; since few persons have
such an attachment either to what they account religion or
truth, as to torment and destroy others for the sake of it,
unless tempted with the views of worldly ambition, power
and grandeur. These views will have the same influence
upon all bad minds, whether of the priesthood or laity, who,
when they are determined at all hazards to pursue them, will
use all methods, right or wrona:, to accomplish and secure
them.
As, therefore, the truth of history obliges me to compli-
ment the laity with the honour of this excellent invention,
for the support and propagation of religion: and as its con-
',
54 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
tinuance in the world to this day is owing to the protection
and authority of their laws, and to certain political ends and
purposes ihey have to serve thereby ; the loading the priest-
hood only, or principally, with the infamy and guilt of it, is
a mean and groundless scandal ; and to be perpetually ob-
jecting the cruelties that have been practised by some who
have called themselves Christians, on others for conscience-
sake, as an argument against the excellency of the Christian
religion, or with a view to prejudice others against it, is an
artifice unworthy a person of common understanding and
honesty. Let all equally share the guilt, who are equally
chargeable with it; and let principles be judged of by what
they are in themselves, and not by the abuses which bad
men may make of them. If any argument can be drawn from
these, we may as well argue against the truth and excellency
of philosophy, because Cicero espoused the principles of
persecution, and Antoninus the philosopher authorized all the
cruelties attending it. But the question in these cases is
not, what one who calls himself a philosopher or a Christian
doth, but what true philosophy and genuine Christianity lead
to and teach ; and if persecution be the natural effect of either
of them, it is neither in my inclination or intention to defend
them.
SECT. VI.
Persecutions by the Mahometans.
It may be thought needless to bring the Mahometans
into this reckoning, it being well known that their avowed
method of propagating religion is by the sword ; and that it
was a maxim of Mahomet, " not to suffer two religions to
be in Arabia.'1 But this is not all; as they are enemies to
all other religions but their own, so they are against tolera-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 55
tion of heretics amongst themselves, and have oftentimes
punished them with death. *HottingerT gives us an account
of a famous dispute amongst them concerning the Coran,
whether it was " the created" or" uncreated word of God?"
Many of their califfs were of opinion that it was created, and
issued their orders that the Musselmen should be compelled
to believe it.2 And as for those who denied it, many were
whipped ; others put in chains; and others murdered. Many,
also, were slain, for not praying in a right posture towards
the temple at Mecca.3 The same author farther tells us,
that there are some heretics, who, whenever they are found,
are burnt to death. The enmity between the Persians and
Turks,4 upon account of their religious difference, is irre-
concileable and mortal; so that they would, each of them,
rather tolerate a Christian than one another. But I pass
from these things to the history of Christian persecution.
* See note [H] at the end of the volume.
(1) Histor. Orient, p. 252. (3) Pag. 366.
(2) Pag. 362. (4) Ibid.
56 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
BOOK II.
OF THE PEItSECUTIONS UNDER THE CHRISTIAN
EMPERORS.
If any person was to judge of the nature and spirit of
the Christian religion, by the spirit and conduct only of too
many who have professed to believe it in all nations, and
almost throughout all ages of the Christian church, he could
scarce fail to censure it as an institution unworthy the God
of order and fleace, subversive of the welfare and happiness
of societies, and designed to enrich and aggrandize a few
only, at the expence of the liberty, reason, consciences,
substance, and lives of others. For what confusions and
calamities, what ruins and desolations, what rapines and
murders, have been introduced into the world, under the
" pretended authority" of Jesus Christ, and supporting- and
propagating Christianity ? What is the best part of our
ecclesiastical history, better than an history of the pride
and ambition, the avarice and tyranny, the treachery and
cruelty of some, and of the persecutions and dreadful
miseries of others ? And what could an unprejudiced per-
son, acquainted with this melancholy truth, and who had
never seen the sacred records, nor informed himself from
thence of the genuine nature of Christianity, think, but that
it was one of the worst religions in the world, as tending to
destroy all natural sentiments of humanity and compassion,
and inspiring its votaries with that " wisdom which is from
beneath," and which is " earthly, sensual, and devilish!" If
this charge could be justly fixed upon the religion of Christ,
it would be unworthy the regard of every wise and good
man, and render it both the interest and duty of every nation
in the world to reject it.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 07
SECT. I.
Of the dispute concerning Easter.
It must be allowed by all who know any thing of the
progress of the Christian religion, that the first preachers
and propagators of it, used none of the vile methods of per-
secution and cruelty to support and spread it. Both their
doctrines and lives destroy every suspicion of this nature ;
and yet in their times the beginnings of this spirit appeared :
" Diotrephes loved the pre-eminence,7' and, therefore, would
not own and receive the inspired apostle. We also read,
that there were great divisions and schisms in the church of
Corinth, and that many grievous disorders were caused
therein, by their ranking themselves under different leaders
and heads of parties, one being for Paul, another for Apol-
los, and others for Cephas. These animosities were with
difficulty healed by the apostolic authority; but do not, how-
ever, appear to have broken out into mutual hatreds, to the
open disgrace of the Christian name and profession. The
primitive Christians seem for many years generally to have
maintained the warmest affection for each other, and to have
distinguished themselves by their mutual love, the great
characteristic of the disciples of Christ. The gospels, and
the epistles of the apostles, all breathe with this amiable
spirit, and abound with exhortations to cultivate this God-
like disposition. It is reported of St. John,1 that in his ex-
treme old age at Ephesus, being carried into the church by
the disciples, upon account of his great weakness, he used to
say nothing else, every time he was brought there, but this
remarkable sentence, " Little children, love one another."
And when some of the brethren were tired with hearing so
often the same thing, and asked him, " Sir, why do you
always repeat this sentence?" he answered, with a spirit
(l) Hieron. in Gal. c. 6.
I
58 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
worthy an apostle, " It is the command of the Lord, and the
fulfilling of the law." Precepts of this kind so frequently
inculcated, could not but have a very good influence in keep-
ing alive the spirit of charity and mutual love. And, indeed,
the primitive Christians were so very remarkable for this
temper, that they were taken notice of on this very account,
and recommended even by their enemies as patterns of bene-
ficence and kindness.
But at length, in the second century, the spirit of pride
and domination appeared publicly, and created great dis-
orders and schisms amongst Christians. There had, been a
controversy of some standing, on what day Easter should be
celebrated. The Asiatic churches thought that it ought to
be kept 011 the' same day on which the Jews held the pass-
over, the fourteenth day of Nisan, their first month, on what-
soever day of the week it should fall out. The custom of
other churches was different, who kept the festival of Easter
only on that Lord's day which was next after the fourteenth
of the moon. This controversy appears at first view to be
of no manner of importance, as there is no command in the
sacred writings to keep this festival at all, much less speci-
fying the particular day on which it should be celebrated.
Eusebius tells us1 from Irenaeus, that Poly carp, bishop of
Smyrna, came to Anicetus, bishop of Rome, on account of
this very controversy ; and that though they differed from
one another in this and some other lesser things, yet they
embraced one another with a kiss of peace ; Poly carp neither
persuading Anicetus to conform to his custom, nor Anicetus
breaking off communion with Polycarp, for not complying
with his. This was a spirit and conduct worthy these
Christian bishops : but Victor, the Roman prelate, acted a
more haughty and violent part; for after he had received
the letters of the Asiatic bishops, giving their reasons for
their own practice, he immediately excommunicated all the
churches of Asia, and those of the neighbouring provinces,
for heterodoxy ; and by his letters declared all the brethren
(l) Euseb, 1. 5, c. 24,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 59
unworthy of communion. This conduct was greatly dis-
pleasing to some other of the bishops, who exhorted him to
mind the things that made for peace, unity, and Christian
love. *Irenaeus especially, in the name of all his brethren,
the bishops of France, blamed him for thus censuring whole
churches of Christ, and puts him in mind of the peaceable
spirit of several of his predecessors, who did not break off
communion with their brethren upon account of such lesser
differences as these. Indeed, this action of pope Victor was
a very insolent abuse of excommunication ; and is an abun-
dant proof that the simplicity of the Christian faith was
greatly departed from ; in that, heterodoxy and orthodoxy
were made to depend on conformity or non-conformity to
the modes and circumstances of certain things, when there
was no shadow of any order for the things themselves in the
sacred writings; and that the lust of power, and the spirit of
pride, had too much possessed some of the bishops of the
Christian church. The same Victor also excommunicated
one Theodosius, for being unsound in the doctrine of the
Trinity.1
However, it must be owned, in justice to some of the
primitive fathers, that they were not of Victor's violent and
persecuting spirit. Tertullian, who flourished under Se-
verus, in his book to Scapula, tells us, " Every one hath a
natural right to worship according to his own persuasion;
for no man's religion can be hurtful or profitable to his
neighbour: nor can it be a part of religion to compel men to
religion, which ought to be voluntarily embraced, and not
through constraint." Cyprian, also, agrees with Tertullian
his master. In his letter to Maximus2 the presbyter, he says,
" It is the sole prerogative of the Lord, to whom the iron
rod is committed, to break the earthen vessels. The servant
cannot be greater than his lord ; nor should any one arrogate
to himself, what the Father hath committed to the Son only,
* See note [I] at the end of the volume.
(l) Euseb, 1. 5. c. 28. (2) Epist. 54. Ed. Fell,
i 2
60 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
viz. to winnow and purge the floor, and separate, by any
human judgment, the chaff from the wheat. This is proud
obstinacy and sacrilegious presumption, and proceeds from
wicked madness. And, whilst some are always assuming to
themselves more dominion than is consistent with justice,
they perish from the church ; and whilst they insolently ex-
tol themselves, they lose the light of truth, being blinded by
their own haughtiness." To these I shall add Lactantius,1
though forty years later than Cyprian. " They are con-
vinced," says he, " that there is nothing more excellent than
religion, and therefore think that it ought to be defended
with force. But they are mistaken, both in the nature of
religion, and in the proper methods to support it : for re-
ligion is to be defended, not by murder, but persuasion ;
not by cruelty, but patience ; not by wickedness, but faithr
Those are the methods of bad men; these of good. If you
attempt to defend religion by blood, and torments, and evil,
this is not to defend, but to violate and pollute it : for there
is nothing should be more free than the choice of our re-
ligion ; in which, if the consent of the worshipper be wanting,
it becomes entirely void and ineffectual. The true way,
therefore, of defending religion, is by faith, a patient suffer-
ing and dying for it : this renders it acceptable to God,
and strengthens its authority and influence." This was the
persuasion of some of the primitive fathers : but of how dif-
ferent a spirit were others !
As the primitive Christians had any intervals from per-
secution, they became more profligate in their morals, and
more quarrelsome in their tempers. As the revenues of the
several bishops increased, they grew more ambitious, less
capable of contradiction, more haughty and arrogant in their
behaviour, more envious and revengeful in every part of
their conduct, and more regardless of the simplicity and
gravity of their profession and character. The accounts I
have before given of them from Cyprian and Eusebius before
(l)Lib. 5. c. 20.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 61
the Pioclesian persecution, to which I might add the latter
one of St. Jeroni," are very melancholy and affecting, and
shew how vastly they were degenerated from the piety and
peaceable spirit of many of their predecessors, and how
ready they were to enter into the worst measures of persecu-
tion, could they but have got the opportunity and power*
SECT. II.
Of the persecutions begun by Constantine.
Under Constantine the emperor, when the Christians
were restored to full liberty, their churches rebuilt, and the
imperial edicts every where published in their favour, they
immediately began to discover what spirit they were of; as
soon as ever they had the temptations of honour and large
revenues before them. Constantine's letters are full proof
of the jealousies and animosities that reigned amongst them.*
In his letters to Miltiades, bishop of Rome, he tells him, that
he had been informed that Caecilianus, bishop of Carthage,
had been accused of many crimes by some of his colleagues,
bishops of Africa ; and that it was very grievous to him to
see so great a number of people divided into parties, and the
bishops disagreeing amongst themselves.3 And though the
emperor was willing to reconcile them by a friendly refer-
ence of the controversy to Miltiades and others ; yet, in spite
of all his endeavours, they maintained their quarrels and
factious opposition to each other, and through secret grudges
and hatred would not acquiesce in the sentence of those
he had appointed to determine the affair. So that, as he
complained to Chrestus bishop of Syracuse, those who
ought to have maintained a brotherly affection and peace-
(l) Epist. 13. (2) E. H. 1. 10. c. 5. (3) Ibid.
62 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
able disposition towards each other, did in a scandalous and
detestable manner separate from one another, and gave oc-
casion to the common enemies of Christianity to deride and
scoff* at them. For this reason, he summoned a council to
meet at Aries in France, that after an impartial hearing of
the several parties, this controversy, which had been carried
on for a long while in a very intemperate manner, might be
brought to a friendly and Christian compromise. *Eusebius"
farther adds, that he not only called together councils in the
several provinces upon account of the quarrels that arose
amongst the bishops, but that he himself was present in them,
and did all he could to promote peace amongst them. How-
ever, all he could do had but little effect ; and it must be
owned that he himself greatly contributed to prevent it, by
his large endowment of churches, by the riches and honours
which he conferred on the bishops, and especially by his an*
thorizing them to sit as judges upon the consciences and faith
of others; by which he confirmed them in a worldly spirit,
the spirit of domination, ambition, pride, and avarice, which
hath in all ages proved fatal to the peace and true interest
of the Christian church.
In the first edict, given us at large by Eusebius,* pub-
lished in favour of the Christians, he acted the part of a wise,
good, and impartial governor ; in which, without mention-
ing any particular sects, he gave full liberty to all Chris-
tians, and to all other persons whatsoever, of following that
religion which they thought best. But this liberty was of
no long duration, and soon abridged jn reference both to
the Christians and heathens. For although in this first
mentioned edict he orders the churches and effects of the
Christians in general to be restored to them, yet in one
immediately following he confines this grant to the Catho-
lic church. After this, in a letter to Miltiades bishop of
Rome, complaining of the differences fomented by the
* See note [K] at the end of the volume.
(!) De Vit. Con. 1. l. c. 44. (2) E. H. 1. 10. c. 5.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 63
African bishops, he lets him know, that he had so great a
reverence for the Catholic church, that he would not have
him suffer in any place any schism or difference whatsoever.
In another to Caecilianus bishop of Carthage,1 after giving
him to understand, that he had ordered Ursus to pay his
reverence three thousand pieces, and Ileraclides to disburse
to him whatever other sums his reverence should have occa-
sion for ; he orders him to complain of all persons who
should go on to corrupt the people of the most holy Catho-
lic church by any evil and false doctrine, to Anulinus the
pro-consul, and Patricius, to whom he had given instructions
on this affair, that if they persevered in such madness they
might be punished according to his orders. It is easy to
guess what the Catholic faith and church meant, viz. that
which was approved by the bishops, who had the greatest
interest in his favour.
As to the Heathens,5 soon after the settlement of the
whole empire under his government, he sent into all the
provinces Christian presidents, forbidding them, and all
other officers of superior dignity, to sacrifice, and confining*
to such of them as were Christians the honours due to their
characters and stations ; hereby endeavouring to support the
kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, by motives
purely worldly, viz. the prospects of temporal preferments
and honours ; and notwithstanding the excellent law he had
before published, that every one should have free exercise
of his own religion, and worship such gods as they thought
proper, he soon after prohibited the old religion,3 viz. the
worship of idols in cities and country ; commanding that
no statues of the gods should be erected, nor any sacrifices
offered upon their altars. And yet, notwithstanding this
abridgment of the liberty of religion, he declares in his
letters afterwards, written to all the several governors of his
provinces,4 that though he wished the ceremonies of the
(1) E.H.I. 10. c. 6. (3) Ibid. c. 45.
(fi) De vit. Const. I. % (4) Ibid. c. 56.
64 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
temples, and the power of darkness were wholly removed,
he would force none, but that every one should have the
liberty of acting in religion as he pleased.
It is not to be wondered at, that the persons who advised
these edicts to suppress the ancient religion of the heathens,
should be against tolerating any other amongst themselves,
who should presume to differ from them in any articles of
the Christian religion they had espoused ; because if erro-
neous and false opinions in religion, as such, are to be pro-
hibited or punished by the civil power, there is equal reason
for persecuting a Christian, whose belief is wrong, and
whose practice is erroneous, as for persecuting persons of
any other false religion whatsoever ; and the same temper
and principles that lead to the latter, will also lead to and
justify the former. And as the civil magistrate, under the
direction of his priests, must always judge for himself what
is truth and error in religion, his laws for supporting the
one, and punishing the other, must always be in conse-
quence of this judgment. And therefore if Constantine and
his bishops were right in prohibiting heathenism by civil
laws, because they believed it erroneous and false, Diocle-
sian and Licinius, and their priests, were equally right in
prohibiting Christianity by civil laws, because they believed
it not only erroneous and false, but the highest impiety and
blasphemy against their gods, and even a proof of atheism
itself. And by the same rule every Christian, that hath
power, is in the right to persecute his Christian brother,
whenever he believes him to be in the wrong. And in
truth, they seem generally to have acted upon this prin-
ciple ; for which party soever of them could get uppermost,
was against all toleration and liberty for those who differed
fiom them, and endeavoured by all methods to oppress and
destroy them.
The sentiments of the primitive Christians, at least for
near three centuries, in reference to the Deity of our Lord
Jesus Christ, were, generally speaking, pretty uniform ; nor
do there appear to have been any public quarrels about this
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 65
article of the Christian faith.* Some few persons, indeed,
differed from the commonly received opinion. One Theo-
dotus a tanner, under the reign of Commodus, asserted
Christ was a mere man, and on this account was excommu-
nicated, with other of his followers, by pope Victor, who
appears to have been very liberal in his censures against
others. Artemon propagated the same erroneous opinion
under Severus. Beryllus* also, an Arabian bishop under
Gordian, taught, " that our Saviour had no proper personal
subsistence before his becoming man, nor any proper god-
head of his own, but only the Father's godhead residing in
him ;" but afterwards altered his opinion, being convinced
of his error by the arguments of Origen. *Sabellius3 also
propagated much the same doctrine, denying also the real
personality of the Holy Ghost. After him Paulus Samo-
satenus,4 bishop of Antioch, and many of his clergy, pub-
licly avowed the same principles concerning Christ, and
were excommunicated by a large council of bishops. But
though these excommunications, upon account of differences
in opinion, prove that the bishops had set up forjudges of
the faith, and assumed a power arid dominion over the con-
sciences of others, yet as they had no civil effects, and were
not enforced by any penal laws, they were not attended with
any public confusions, to the open reproach of the Chris-
tian church.
But when once Christianity was settled by the laws of
the empire, and the bishops free to act as they pleased,
without any fear of public enemies to disturb and oppress
them, they fell into more shameful and violent quarrels,
upon account of their differences concerning the nature and
dignity of Christ.5 The controversy first began between
Alexander bishop of Alexandria, and tArius,6 one of his
* See note [L] at the end of the volume,
f See note [M] at the end of the volume.
(1) Euseb. E. H. 1. 5. c. 28. (4) Ibid. 1. 7. c. 28, 29.
(2) Ibid. 1. 6. c. 33. (5) De vit. Const. 1. 2. c 61.
(3) Ibid. 1. 7. c, 27. (6) Soc. E. H. 1. i, c. 6.
K
66 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
presbyters, and soon spread itself into other churches,
enflaming bishops against bishops, who out of a pretence
to support divine truth excited tumults, and entertained
irreconcileable hatreds towards one another. These divisions
of the prelates set the Christian people together by the ears,
as they happened to favour their different leaders and heads
of parties; and the dispute was managed with such violence,
that it soon reached the whole Christian world, and gave
occasion to the heathens in several places to ridicule the
Christian religion upon their public theatres.1 How dif-
ferent were the tempers of the bishops and clergy of these
times from the excellent spirit of Dionysius bishop of Alex-
andria, in the reign of Decius, who writing to Novatus
upon account of,the disturbance he had raised in the church
of Rome, by the severity of his doctrine, in not admitting
those who lapsed into idolatry in times of persecution ever
more to communion, thougli they gave all the marks of a
true repentance and conversion, tells him, u one ought to
suffer any thing in the world rather than divide the church
of God."
The occasi6n of the Arian controversy2 was this.3 Alex-
ander, bishop of Alexandria, speaking in a very warm manner
(l) Euseb. 1. 6. c. 45. (2) Soc. E. H* 1. 1. c. 15.
(3) Theodoret* indeed gives another account of this matter, viz. That Arius
was disappointed of the bishopric of Alexandria by the promotion of Alex-
ander, and that this provoked him to oppose the doctrine of the bishop.f
But it should be considered that Theodoret lived an hundred years after
Arius, and appears to have had the highest hatred of his name and memory.
He tells us, " he was employed by the devil ; that he was an impious wretch,
and damned in the other world." The accusations of such a one deserve
but little credit, especially as there are no concurrent testimonies to support
them. Bishop Alexander never mentions it amongst those other charges
which he throws upon him, in his letter to the bishop of Constantinople.
Constantine expressly ascribes the rise of the controversy to Alexander's
inquisitory temper, and to Arius' s speaking of things he ought never to have
thought of. Socrates assures us it was owing to this, that Arius apprehended
the bishop taught the doctrine of Sabellius. Sozomen J imputes their quarrel
* Theod. 1. l. c. 2. t c- 7> 14-. % Soz. p. 426.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION (>T
concerning the Trinity before the presbyters and clergy of
his church, affirmed there was "an Unity in the Trinity,'1
and particularly that " the Sou was co-eternal and consub-
stantial, and of the same dignity with the Father." vYrius,
one of his presbyters, thought that the bishop, by this doc-
trine, was introducing the Sabellian heresy, and therefore
opposed him, arguing in this manner : "If the Father
begot the Son, he who was begotten must have a beginning
of his existence ; and from hence," says he, " it is manifest,
that there was a time when he was not ; the necessary con-
sequence of which" he affirmed was this,1 " that he had his
subsistence out of things not existing.*1 Sozomen adds
farther, that he asserted, "that by virtue of his free-will
the Son was capable of vice as well as virtue ; and that he
was the mere creature and work of God." The bishop
being greatly disturbed by these expressions of Arius, upon
account of the novelty of them, and net able to bear such
an opposition from one of his presbyters to his own prin-
ciples, commanded (" admonished, as president of the coun-
cil, to whom it belonged to enjoin silence, and put an end
to the dispute") Arius to forbear the use of them, and
to embrace the doctrine of the consubstantiality and co-
eternity of the Father and the Son. But Arius was not
thus to be convinced, especially as a great number of the
only to their diversity of sentiments. Bishop Alexander says he opposed
Arius, because he taught impious doctrines concerning the Son ; and Arius
affirms he opposed Alexander on the same account. Now whether Theo-
doret's single unsupported testimony is to be preferred to these other
accounts, I leave every one that is a judge of common sense to deter-
mine. Nay, I think it is evident it must be a slander, because the bishop
himself had an esteem for Arius, after his advancement to the bishopric
of Alexandria, and, as Gelasius Cyzicenus tells us,4- "made him the
presbyter next in dignity to himself;" which it is not probable he would
have done, if he had seen in him any tokens of enmity because of his pro«
motion.
(1) E.II. 1. 1. c. 15.
* 1. 2. c i.
68 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTIONS
bishops and clergy were of his opinion, and supported him ;
and for this reason himself and the clergy of his party were
excommunicated, and expelled the church, in a council of
near an hundred of the Egyptian and Lybian bishops met
together for that purpose, by the bishop, who in this case
was both party and judge, the enemy and condemner of
Arius. Upon this treatment Arius and his friends sent
circular letters to the several bishops of the" church, giving
them an account of their faith, and desiring that if they
found their sentiments orthodox, they would write to Alex-
ander in their favour ; if they judged them wrong, they
would give them instructions how to believe. Thus was
the dispute carried into the Christian church, and the
bishops being divided in their opinions, some of them
wrote to Alexander not to admit Arius and his party into
communion without renouncing their principles, whilst
others of them persuaded him to act a different part. The
bishop not only followed the advice of the former, but wrote
letters to the several bishops not to communicate with any
of them, nor to receive them if they should come to them,
nor to credit Eusebius,1 nor any other person that should
write to them in their behalf, but to avoid them as the
enemies of God, and the corrupters of the souls of men ;
and not so much as to salute them, or to have any commu-
nion with them in their crimes. Eusebius,2 who was bishop
of Nicomedia, sent several letters to Alexander, exhorting
him to let the controversy peaceably drop, and to receive
Arius into communion ; but finding him inflexible to all his
repeated entreaties, he got a synod to meet in Bithynia,
from whence they wrote letters to the other bishops, "to
engage them to receive the Arians to their communion, and
to persuade Alexander to do the same. But all their endea-
vours proved ineffectual, and by these unfriendly dealings
the parties grew more enraged against each other, and the
quarrel became incurable.
(l) Soc. E. H. 1. 1. c. 6. (2) Soz. 1. 1. c. 15.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. ()9
It is, I confess, not a little surprising, that the whole
Christian world should be put into such a flame upon ac-
count of a dispute of so very abstruse and metaphysical a
nature, as this really was in the course and management of
it. Alexander's doctrine, as Alius represents it in his letter
to Eusebius of Nicomedia,* was this : " God is always, and
the Son always. The same time the Father, the same time
the Son. The Son co-exists with God unbegottenly, being
ever begotten, being unbegottenly begotten. That God
was not before the Son, no not in conception, or the least
point of time, he being ever God, ever a Son : for the Son
is out of God himself." Nothing could be more inexcus-
able, than the tearing the churches in pieces upon account
of such high and subtle points as these, except the conduct
of Arius, who on the other hand asserted, as Alexander,
his bishop, in his letter to the bishop of Constantinople,*
tells us, u that there was a time when there was no Son
of God, and that he who before was not, afterwards existed;
being made, whensoever he was made, just as any man
whatsoever ; and that therefore he was of a mutable nature,
and equally receptive of vice and virtue," and other things
of the like kind. If these were the things taught, and pub-
licly avowed by Alexander and Arius, as each represents
the other's principles, I persuade myself, that every sober
man will think they both deserved censure, for thus leaving
the plain account of scripture, introducing terms of their
own invention into a doctrine of pure revelation, and at last
censuring and writing one against another, and dividing
the whole church of Christ upon account of them. v
But it is no uncommon thing for warm disputants to
mistake and misrepresent each other; and that this was
partly the case in the present controversy, is, I think,
evident beyond dispute ; Alexander describing the opinions
of Arius, not as he held them himself, but according to the
consequences he imagined to follow from them. Thus
(l) Theod. E. H. 1. 1. c. 5. (2) Id. 1. l. c. 4.
70 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Arius asserted,-" the Son hatha beginning, and is from none
of the things that do exist;" not meaning that he was not
from everlasting, before ever the creation, time, and ages
had a being, or that he was created like other beings, or
that like the rest of the creation he was mutable in his
nature. Arius expressly declares the contrary, before his
condemnation by the council of Nice, in his letter to Euse-
bius, his intimate friend, from whom he had no reason to
conceal his most secret sentiments, and says,1 " This is what
we have and do profess, that the Son is not unbegotten, nor
in any manner a part of the unbegotten God, nor from any
part of the material world, but that by the will and council
of the Father he existed before all times and ages, perfect
God, the only begotten and unchangeable, and that there-
fore before he was begotten or formed he was not," i. e. as
lie explains himself, " there never was a time when he was
unbegotten." His affirming therefore that the Son had a
beginning, was only saying, that he was in the whole of his
existence from the Father, as the origin and fountain of his
being and deity, and not any denial of his being from
before all times and ages • and his saying that he was no
part of God, nor derived from things that do exist, was not
denying his generation from God before all ages, or his
being; completely God himself, or his being produced after
a more excellent manner than the creatures ; but that as
he was always from God, so he was different both from him,
and all other beings, and a sort of middle nature between
God and his creatures ; whose beginning, as Eusebius of
.Nicomedia writes to Paulinus,* bishop of Tyre, was " not
only inexplicable by words, but unconceivable by the under-
standing of men, and by all other beings superior to men,
and who was formed after the most perfect likeness to the
nature and power of God." This is the strongest evidence
that neither Arius nor his first friends put the Son upon a
level with the creatures, but that they were in many re-
(l) Theod. E. H. 1. 1. c. 5. (2) Id. Ibid. c. 6,
THE IT1ST0FV OF PERSECUTION. 71
spects of the same sentiments with those who condemned
them. Thus Alexander declares the Son to be " before all
ages." Alius expressly says the same, that he was " before
all times and ages." Alexander, that "he was begotten,
not out of nothing-, but from the Father who was." Alius,
that " he was the begotten God, the Word from the Father."
Alexander says, " the Father, only, is unbegotten." Arius,
that u there never was a time when the Son was not begot-
ten." Alexander, that " the subsistence of the Son is in-
explicable even by angels." Eusebius, that " his beginning
is inconceivable and inexplicable by men and angels." Alex-
ander, that " the Father was always a Father because of the
Son." Arius, that " the Son was not before he was begot-
ten;" and, that u he was, from before all ages, the begotten
Son of God." Alexander, that " he was of an unchangeable
nature." Arius, that " he was unchangeable." Alexander,
that " he was the unchangeable image of his Father." Euse-
bius, that " he was made after the perfect likeness of the
disposition and power of him that made him." Alexander,
that " all things have received their essence from the Father
through the Son." Arius, that" God made by the Word
all things in heaven and earth." Alexander, that " the
Word, who made all things, could not be of the same nature
with the things he maae." Arius, that " he was the perfect
creature or production oi God, but not as one of the crea-
tures."1 Arius, again, that " the Son was no part of God?
nor from any thing that did exist." Alexander, that " the
only begotten nature was a middle nature, between the un-
begotten Father, and the things created by him out of
nothing." And yet, notwithstanding all these things, when
Alexander gives an account of the principles of Arius to the
bishops, he represents them in all the consequences he
thought fit to draw from them, and charges him with hold-
ing, that the Son was made like every other creature, abso-
lutely out of nothing, and that therefore his nature was
(l) Theod. E.H.I, l. c. 4.
72 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
mutable, and susceptive equally of virtue and vice ; with
many other invidious and unscriptural doctrines, which
Arius plainly appears not to have maintained or taught.
I do not, however, imagine that Alexander and Arius
were of one mind in all the parts of this controversy. They
seemed to differ in the following things. Particularly about
the strict eternity of the generation of the Son. Alexander
affirmed, that it was " absolutely without beginning;" and,
that there was no imaginary point of time in which the
Father was prior to the Son ; and, that the soul could not
conceive or think of any distance between them. Arius, on
the other hand, maintained, " The Son hath a beginning,
there was a time when he was not;" by which he did not
mean, that he was not before all times and ages, or the
creation of the worlds visible and invisible; but that the
very notion of begetting and begotten doth necessarily, in the
very nature of things, imply, that the begetter must be some
point of time, at least in our conception, prior to what is
begotten. And this is agreeable to the ancient doctrine of
the primitive fathers. They held, indeed, many of them,1
such as Justin Martyr, Tatian, Athenagoras, Tertullian,
Novatian, Lactantius, &c. that Logos, i. e. power, wisdom,
and reason, existed in God the Father strictly from eternity,
but without any proper hypostasis or personality of its own.
But that before the creation of the worlds, God the Father
did emit, or produce, or generate this Logos, reason or
wisdom ; whereby, what was before the internal Logos, or
wisdom of the Father, existing eternally in and inseparably
from him, had now its proper hypostasis, subsistence, or
personality. Not that the Father hereby became (i desti-
tute of reason," but that this production proceeded after an
ineffable and inexplicable manner. And this production of
the Word some of them never scrupled to affirm was posterior
to the Father, and that the Father was prior to the Son as
thus begotten. They considered the Son under a twofold
(i) Dial. p. 112, 4i3. p. 20, &c. De Reg. fid, p. 240. De ver. Sap. p. 371.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
73
character, as the reason, and as the word of God. As " the
reason of God," he was eternally in the Father, " unorigi-
nated, unbegotten, nnderived." As " the word of God,"
lie was Missus, Creatus, Genitus, Prolatus, and received his
distinct subsistence and personality then, when God said,
" Let there be light ;" and on this account the Father was,
as Novatian speaks, " as a Father prior to the Son." And,
as Tertullian says, " God is a Father and a Judge. But it
doth not thence follow that he was always a Father and
always a Judge, because always God : for he could not be a
Father before the Son, nor a Judge before the offence. But
there was a time when there was no offence, and when the
Son was not, by which God became a Judge and Father."
Another tiling- in which Alexander and Arius differed,
was in the use of certain words, describing the production
and generation of the Son of God. Alexander denied that
he was made or created, and would not apply to him any
word by which the production of the creatures was denoted.
Whereas Arius, and Eusebius of Nicomedia, did not scruple
to affirm that he was created, founded, and the like. And
for this they quoted that passage, Prov. vii. 22, &c. as ren-
dered by the LXX. " The Lord created me the beginning
of his way, he founded me before the age, and begat me be-
fore all the hills." They did not, however, hereby put him
upon a level with the creatures. For though Arius says, he
was the " perfect creature of God," yet he immediately sub-
joins, " vet not as one of the creatures ;" and affirms that
he was " begotten not in time," or " before all time,"
which could not be affirmed of the creatures. And his friend
Eusebius says, that he was " created, founded, and begotten
with an unchangeable and ineffable nature." Nor were the
primitive fathers afraid to use such-like words. Justin
Martyr says, he was " the first production of God," Apol.
i. c. 66. Tatian, that lie was " the first born work of the
Father." Tertullian, that Sophia was " formed the second
person." And indeed most of the primitive fathers ex-
pounded the before-mentioned passage of the Proverbs of
74 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
the eternal generation of the Son, and thereby allowed him
to be " created and founded."
Another thing in which Alexander and Arius seemed to
differ, was about the voluntary generation of the Son of God.
Alexander doth not, I think, expressly deny this.* but seems
to intimate, that the generation of the Son was necessary.
Thus he says of the Son, " He is like to the Father, and in-
ferior only in this, that he is not unbegotten," or " that the
Father only is unbegotten ;" the consequence of which seems
to be, that he apprehended his generation as necessary as
the essence of the Father. Arius on the contrary, and his
friends, affirmed, that " he was begotten by the will of the
Father ;" a doctrine not new nor strange in the primitive
church. Justin Martyr, speaking of the Word, says,1 " this
virtue was begotten by the Father by his power and will."
And again, explaining the scripture Gen. xix. 24. " The
Lord rained down lire from the Lord from heaven," he says,
" There was one Lord on earth, and another in heaven, who
was the Lord of that Lord who appeared on earth ;2 as his
Father and God, and the author or cause to him of being
powerful, and Lord, and God," Cont. Tryph. Pars secund.
And again, lie expressly affirms him " to be begotten by the
will of his Father." In like manner Tatian, " that he did
come forth by the pure will of the Father." And Tertullian,
Cont. Prax. " He then first produced the Word, when it
first pleased him." I do not take upon me to defend any of
these opinions, but only to represent them as I find them ;
and I think the three particulars I have mentioned were the
most material differences between the contending parties.
I know the enemies of Arius charged him with many
other principles ; but as it is the common fate of religious
disputes to be managed with an intemperate heat, it is no
wonder his opponents should either mistake or misrepresent
him, and, in their warmth, charge him with consequences
which either he did not see, or expressly denied. And as
( 1 ) Dialog, p. 4 1 3. Ed. Thirl. (2) Ibfd. p. 4 1 3,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION 7->
ilii- appears to be the case, no wonder the controversy was
never fairly managed, nor brought to a friendly and peace-
able issue. Many methods were tried, but all in vain, to
bring Alexander and Arius to a reconciliation, the emperor
himself condescending to become a mediator between them.
The first step he took to heal this breach was right and
prudent : he sent his letters to Alexandria,1 exhorting Alex-
ander and Arius to lay aside their differences, and become
reconciled to each other. He tells them, that " after he
had diligently examined the rise and foundation of this affair,
he found the occasion of the difference to be very trifling,
and not worthy such furious contentions ; and that therefore
he promised himself that his mediation between them for
peace, would have the desired effect." lie tells Alexander,
" that he required from his presbyter a declaration of their
sentiments concerning a silly, empty question." And Arius,
u that he had imprudently uttered what he should not have
vxan thought of, or what at least he ought to have kept
secret in his own breast; and that therefore questions about
such things should not have been asked ; or if they had,
should not have been answered ; that they proceeded from
an idle itch of disputation, and were in themselves of so high
and difficult a nature, as that they could not be exactly com-
prehended, or suitably explained;" and that to insist on
such points too much before the people, could produce no
other effect, than to make some of them talk blasphemy, and
others turn schismatics: and that therefore, " as they did
not contend about any essential doctrine of the gospel, nor
introduce any new heresy concerning the worship of God,"
they should again communicate with each other ; and finally,
that notwithstanding their sentiments in these unnecessary
and trilling matters were different from each other, they
should acknowledge one another as brethren, and, laying
aside their hatreds, return to a firmer friendship and affec-
tion than before.
(l) Euseb. Vit. Const. I. I. c. 63, &c.
1,2
76 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
But religious hatreds are not so easily removed, and the
ecclesiastical combatants were too warmly engaged to fol-
low this kind and wholesome advice. The bishops of each
side had already interested the people in their quarrel,1 and
heated them into such a rage that they attacked and fought
with, wounded and destroyed each other, and acted with
such madness as to commit the greatest impieties for the
sake of orthodoxy ; and arrived to that pitch of insolence,
as to offer great indignities to the imperial images. The
old controversy about the time of celebrating Easter being
now revived, added fuel to the flames, and rendered their
animosities too furious to be appeased.
SECT. III.
The Nicene Council. '
*Constantine being greatly disturbed upon this ac-
count, sent letters to the bishops ' of the several provinces
of the empire to assemble together at Nice in Bithynia, and
accordingly great numbers of them came, A. C. 325/ some
through hopes of profit, and others out of curiosity to see
such a miracle of an emperor, and many of them upon much
worse accounts. The number of them was 318, besides vast
numbers of presbyters, deacons, Acolythists, and others.
The ecclesiastical historians tell us, that in this vast col-
lection of bishops some " were remarkable for their gra-
vity, patience under sufferings, modesty, integrity, eloquence*,
courteous behaviour," and the like virtues ; that " some
were venerable for their age, and others excelled in their
* See note [N] at the end of the volume.
(1) Euseb. Vit. Const. 1. 3. c. 4, 5. 325. Id. Ibid. c. 6. Soc. E. H. 1. I-
[2) The first general council, A. C. c. 1 7,
1HE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
77
youthful vigour, both of body and mind." They are called
" an army of God, mustered against the devil ; a great
crown or garland of priests, composed and adorned with the
fairest flowers ; confessors ; a crowd of martyrs ; a divine and
memorable assembly; a divine choir," &c. But yet they
all agree that there were others of very different characters.
Eusebius tells us, that after the emperor had ended his
speech, exhorting them to peace, " some of them began to
accuse their neighbours, others to vindicate themselves, and
recriminate ; that many things of this nature were urged on
both sides, and many quarrels or debates arose in the be-
ginning ;" and that some came to the council with worldly
views of gain. Theodorit says,1 that those of the Arian
party " were subtle and crafty, and like shelves under water
concealed their wickedness ;" that amongst the orthodox
some of them u were of a quarrelling malicious temper, and
accused several of the bishops, and that they presented their
accusatory libels to the emperor." Socrates says that " very
many of them, the major part of them, accused one another ;
and that many of them the day before the emperor came to
the council, had delivered in to him libels of accusations, or
petitions against their enemies." Sozomen goes farther, and
tells us, " that as it usually comes to pass, many of the priests
came together, that they might contend earnestly about
their own affairs, thinking they had now a fit opportunity
to redress their grievances ; and, that every one presented
a libel to the emperor, of the matters of which he accused
others, enumerating his particular grievances. And that
this happened almost every day." Gelasius Cyzicenus's
account of them is,3 " that when all the bishops were
gathered together, according to custom, there happened
many debates and contentions amongst the bishops, each one
having matters of accusation against the other. Upon this
they gave in libels of accusation to the emperor, who re-
ceived them ; and when he saw the quarrels of such bishops
(l) Theod. E. H. I. I, c. 7, 11. (2) 1. 2. c. 8.
78 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
with one another, he said, &c. and endeavoured to conceal
the wicked attempts of such bishops from the knowledge of
those without doors." So that, notwithstanding the enco-
miums of this council, the evil spirit had plainly got amongst
them ; for after the emperor had exhorted them to lay aside
all their differences, and to enter into measures of union and
peace, instead of applying themselves to the work for which
they were convened, they began shamefully to accuse each
other, and raised great disturbances in the council by their
mutual charges and reproaches. Sabinus also saith,1 they
were generally a set of very ignorant men, and destitute of
knowledge and learning. But as Sabinus was an heretic of
the Macedonian sect, probably his testimony may be thought
exceptionable ; and even supposing his charge to be true,
yet *Socrates brings them off' by telling us, that they were en-
lightened by God, and the grace of his holy spirit, and so qould
not possibly err from the truth, But as some men may pos-
sibly question the truth of their inspiration, so I think it
appears but too plain, that an assembly of men, who met
together with such different views, were so greatly pre-
judiced and inflamed against other, and are supposed, many
of them, to be ignorant, till they received miraculous
illuminations from God, did not seem very likely to heal
the differences of the church, or to examine with that
wisdom, care, and impartiality, or to enter into those mea-
sures of condescension and forbearance that were necessary
to lay a solid foundation for peace and unity.
However, the emperor brought them at last to some
temper, so that they fell in good earnest to creed-making,
and drew up, and subscribed that, which, from the place
where they were assembled, was called the Nicene. By the
.accounts of the transactions in this assembly, given by
f Athanasius himself, in his letter to the African bishops,2 it
* See note [0] at the end of the volume.
f See note [P] at the end of the volume.
(l) Soz, E. H. k 1. c. 9. (2) Theod, E. K. I. 1. c. s.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. Vi*
appears, that they were determined to insert into the creed
such words as were niott obnoxious to the Arians, and thus
to force them to a public separation from the church. For
when they resolved to condemn some expressions which the
Arians were charged ?i ith making use of, such as, u the Son
was a creature ; there was a time when he was not," and the
like : and to establish the use of others in their room, such
as, " the Son was the only begotten of God by nature, the
Word, the Power, the only Wisdom of the Father, and true
God ;" the Arians immediately agreed to it : upon this the
fathers made an alteration, and explained the words, u from
God," by the Son's " being of the substance of God."
And when the Arians consented also to this, the bishops
further added, to render the creed more exceptionable, that
u he was consubstantial, or of the same substance with the
Father." And when the Arians objected, that this expres-
sion was wholly unscriptural, the Orthodox urged, that
though it was so, yet the bishops that lived an hundred and
thirty years before them, made use of it. At last, however,
all the council subscribed the creed thus altered and amended,
except five bishops, who were displeased with the word
;i consubstantial," and made many objections against it ; and
of these live, three, viz. Eusebius, Theognis, and Maris,
seem afterwards to have complied with the rest, excepting
only, that they refused to subscribe to the condemnation of
Alius.
Eusebius,1 bishop of Ca?sarea, was also in doubt for a
considerable time, whether he should set his hand to it, and
refused to do it, till the exceptionable words had been fully
debated amongst them, and he had obtained an explication
of them suitable to his own sentiments. Thus when it was
asserted by the creed, that " the Son was of the Father's
substance," the negative explication agreed to by the
bishops was exactly the same thing that was asserted by
Arius, viz. that " he was not a part of the Father's sub-
(l) Theod. 1. 1. c 12
80 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
stance." Again, as the words " begotten, not made/* were
applied to the Son, they determined the meaning to be,
that " the Son was produced after a different manner than
the creatures which he made," and was therefore of a more
excellent nature than any of the creatures, and that the man-
ner of his generation could not be understood. This was
the very doctrine of Arius, and Eusebius of Nicomedia, who
declared, that " as the Son was no part of God, so neither
was he from any thing created, and that the manner of his
generation was not to be described." And as to the word
" consubstantial" to the Father, it was agreed by the coun-
cil to mean no more, than that u the Son had no likeness
with any created Beings, but was in all things like to him
that begot him, and that he was not from any other hypos-
tasis, or substance, but the Father's." Of this sentiment also
were Arius, and Eusebius his friend, who maintained not
only his being of a more excellent original than the creatures,
but that he was formed " of an immutable and ineffable
substance and nature, and after the most perfect likeness of
the nature and power of him that formed him." These were
the explications of these terms agreed to by the council,
upon which Eusebius, of Caesarea, subscribed them in the
creed ; and though some few of the Arian bishops refused to
do it, yet it doth not appear to me, that it proceeded from
their not agreeing in the sense of these explications, but be-
cause they apprehended that the words were very improper,
and implied a great deal more than was pretended to be
meant by them; and especially, because an anathema was.
added upon all who should presume not to believe in them
and use them. Eusebius, of Caesarea, gives a very extra-
ordinary reason for his subscribing this anathema, viz.
because " it forbids the use of unscriptural words, the intro-
ducing which he assigns as the occasion of all the differ-
ences and disturbances which had troubled the church."
But had he been consistent with himself, he ought never to
have subscribed this creed, for the very reason he alledges
why he did it ; because the anathema forbids only the un-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 81
scriptural words of Arius, such as, " He was made out of
nothing; there was a time when he was not," and the like;
but allowed and made sacred the unscriptural expressions of
the orthodox, viz. " Of the Father's substance, and con-
substantial," and cut off from Christian communion those
who would not agree to them, though they were highly
exceptionable to the Arian party, and afterwards proved
the occasions of many cruel persecutions and evils.
In this public manner did the bishops assert a dominion
over the faith and consciences of others, and assume a
power, not only to dictate to them what they should believe,
but even to anathematize, and expel from the Christian
church, all who refused to submit to their decisions, and
own their authority.1 For after they had carried their
creed, they proceeded to excommunicate Arius and his
followers, and banished Arius from Alexandria. They also
condemned his explication of his own doctrine, and a certain
book, called Thalia, which he had written concerning it.
After this they sent letters to Alexandria, and to the
brethren in Egypt, Lybia, and Pentapolis, to acquaint them
with their decrees, and to inform them, that the holy synod
had condemned the opinions of Arius, and were so zealous
in this affair, that they had not patience so much as to hear
his ungodly doctrine and blasphemous words, and that they
had fully determined the time for the celebration of Easter.
Finally, they exhort them to rejoice, for the good deeds
they had done, and for that they had cut off all manner of
heresy, and to pray, that their right transactions might be
established by Almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
When these things were over, Constantine 2 splendidly
treated the bishops, filled their pockets, and sent them
honourably home ; advising them at parting to maintain
peace amongst themselves, and that none of them should
envy another who might excel the rest in wisdom and elo-
quence, and that such should not carry themselves haughtily
(\) Soc. 1.1. c. 9. (2) Euseb. de Vit. Const. 1. S, c. 20
>i
82 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
towards their inferiors, but condescend to, and bear with
their weakness. A plain demonstration that he saw into
their tempers, and was no stranger to the pride and haughti-
ness that influenced some, and the envy and hatred that
actuated others. After he had thus dismissed them he sent
several letters, recommending and enjoining an universal
conformity to the council's decrees both in ceremony and
doctrine, using, among other things, this argument for it,1
" That what they had decreed was the will of God, and
that the agreement of so great a number of such bishops,
was by inspiration of the Holy Ghost."
It is natural here to observe, that the anathemas and
depositions agreed on by this council, and confirmed by the
imperial authority, were the beginning of all those persecu-
tions that afterwards raged against each party in their turns.
As the civil power had now taken part in the controversies
about religion, by authorising the dominion of the bishops
over the consciences of others, enforcing their ecclesiastical
constitutions, and commanding the universal reception of
that faith they had decreed to be orthodox ; it was easy to
foresee, that those who opposed them would employ the same
arts and authority to establish their own faith and power,
and to oppress their enemies, the first favourable opportu-
nity that presented : and this the event abundantly made
good. And, indeed, how should it be otherwise ? For doc-
trines that are determined merely by dint of numbers, and
the awes of worldly power, carry no manner of conviction
in them, and are not likely therefore to be believed' on
these accounts by those who have once opposed them. And
as such methods of deciding controversies equally suit all
principles, the introducing them by any party, gives but too
plausible a pretence to every party, when uppermost, to use
them in their turn ; and though they may agree well enough
with the views of spiritual ambition, yet they can be of no
service in the world to the interest of true religion, because
\_ . ______
-■ " — ..»— . -. „ .. n.,i i. I . | ■■ ill I IH I ■!— I -"—
(i) Soc, Eo ti 1. 1. c. 9.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 83
they are directly contrary to the nature and spirit of it ; and
because arguments, which equally prove the truth and ex-
cellency of all principles, cannot in the least prove the truth
ofanv.
If one may form a judgment of the persons who com-
posed this council, from the small accounts we have left of
them, they do not, I think, appear to have met so much with
a design impartially to debate on the subjects in controversy,
ps to establish their own authority and opinions, and oppress
their enemies. For besides what hath been already observed
concerning their temper and qualifications, *Theodorit in-
forms us,r that when those of the Arian party proposed in
writing, to the synod, the form of faith they had drawn up,
the bishops of the orthodox side no sooner read it, but they
gravely tore it in pieces, and called it a spurious and false
confession ; and after they had filled the place with noise
and confusion, universally accused them of betraying the
doctrine according to godliness. Doth such a method of
proceeding suit very well with t)\e character of a synod
inspired, as the good emperor declared, by the Holy Ghost ?
Is truth and error to be decided by noise and tumult ? Was
this the way to convince gainsayers, and reconcile them to
the unity of the faith ? Or could it be imagined, that the
dissatisfied part of this venerable assembly would acquiesce
in the tyrannical determination of such a majority, and
patiently submit to excommunication, deposition, and the
condemnation of their opinions, almost unheard, and alto-
gether unexamined ? How just is the censure passed by
+ Gregory Nazianzen2 upon councils in general ? u If," says
he, " I must speak the truth, this is my resolution, to avoid all
councils of the bishops, for I have not seen any good end
answered by any synod whatsoever ; for their love of con-
tention, and their lust of power, are too great even for words
* See note [Q] at the end of the volume.
f See note [R] at the end of the volume.
(l) E. H. 1. 1. c. 7, (2) Vol. I. Epist. 1\\ Edict. Col,
M 2
84 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
to express." The emperor's conduct to the bishops met at
Nicex is full proof of the former ; for when they were met in
council, they immediately fell to wrangling and quarrelling,
and were not to be appeased and brought to temper, till Con-
stantine interposed, artfully persuading some, shaming others
into silence, and heaping commendations on those fathers
that spoke agreeable to his sentiments. The decisions they
made concerning the faith, and their excommunications and
depositions of those who differed from them, demonstrate
also their affectation of power and dominion. But as they
had great reason to believe, that their own decrees would
be wholly insignificant, without the interposition of the im-
perial authority to enforce them, they soon obtained their
desires ; and prevailed with the emperor to confirm all they
had determined, and to enjoin all Christians to submit them-
selves to their decisions.
His first letters to this purpose were mild and gentle/
but he was soon persuaded by his clergy into more violent
measures ; for out of his great zeal to extinguish heresy, he
put forth public edicts, against the authors and maintainers
of it ; and particularly against the Novatians, Valentinians,
Marcionists, and others, whom after reproaching " with
being enemies of truth, destructive counsellors, and with
holding opinions suitable to their crimes," he deprives of the
liberty of meeting together for worship, either in public or
private places, and gives all their oratories to the orthodox
church. And with respect to the Arians,3 he banished Arius
himself,4 ordered all his followers, as absolute enemies of
Christ, to be called Porphyrians, from *Porphyrius, an hea-
then, who wrote against Christianity ; ordained that the
books written by them should be burnt, that there might be
no remains of their doctrine left to posterity; and most
cruelly commanded, that if ever any one should dare to keep
* See note [S] at the end of the volume.
(1) Euseb. de Vit. Const. 1. 3. c. 13. (s) Soz. 1. 1. c. 21.
(2) Ibid. c.65. (4) Soc. 1. l. c. 9.
HIE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION 9>')
in his possession any book written by Anus, and should not
immediately burn it. he should be no sooner convicted of
the crime but he should suffer death. lie afterwards put
forth a fresh edict against the recusants, by which he took
from them their places of worship, and prohibited not only
their meeting' in public, but even in any private houses
whatsoever.
Thus the orthodox first brought in the punishment of
heresy with death,1 and persuaded the emperor to destroy
those whom they could not easily convert. The scriptures
were now no longer the rule and standard of the Christian
faith. Orthodoxy and heresy were from henceforward to be
determined by the decisions of councils and fathers, and reli-
gion to be propagated no*longer by the apostolic methods of
persuasion, forbearance, and the virtues of an holy life, but by
imperial edicts and decrees ; and heretical gainsay ers not to
be convinced, that they might be brought to the acknowledg-
ment of the truth and be saved, but to be persecuted and de-
stroyed. It is no wonder, that after this there should be a
continual fluctuation of the public faith, just as the prevailing
parties had the imperial authority to support them, or that
( 1 ) The Edict of Constant hie to the bishops and people.
" Since Anus hath imitated wicked and ungodly men, it is just that he
should undergo the same infamy with them. As therefore Porphyrius, an
enemy of godliness, for his having composed wicked hooks against Chris-
tianity, hath found a suitable recompense, so as to be infamous for the time
to come, and to be loaded with great reproach, and to have all his impious
writings quite destroyed ; so also it is now my pleasure, that Arius, and those
of Anus's sentiments, shall be called Porphyrians, so that they may have
the appellation of those, whose manners they have imitated. Moreover, if
any book composed by Arius shall be found, it shall be delivered to the fire ;
that " not only his evil doctrine may be destroyed, but that there may not be
the least remembrance of it left." This also I enjoin, that if any one shall be
found to have concealed " any writing" composed by Arius, and shall not
immediately bring it and consume it in the fire, death shall be his punish-
ment; for as soon as ever he is taken in this crime, he shall suffer a capital
punishment. God preserve you."
86 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION
we should meet with little else in ecclesiastical history but
violence and cruelties committed by men who had left the
simplicity of the Christian faith and profession, enslaved
themselves to ambition and avarice, and had before them
the ensnaring views of temporal grandeur, high preferments,
and large revenues. " Since the time that avarice hath
encreased in the churches," says *St. Jerom,1 u the law is
perished from the priest, and the vision from the prophet.
Whilst all contend for the episcopal power,' which they un-
lawfully seize on without the church's leave, they apply to
their own uses all that belongs to the Levites. The mise-
rable priest begs in the streets — they die with hunger who
are commanded to bury others. They ask for mercy who
are commanded to have mercy on others — the priests' only
care is to get money — hence hatreds arise through the ava-
rice of the priests ; hence the bishops are accused by their
clergy ; hence the quarrels of the prelates ; hence the causes
of desolations ; hence the rise of their wickedness." Religion
and Christianity seem indeed to be the least thing that either
the contending parties had at heart, by the infamous methods
they took to establish themselves and ruin their adversaries.
If one reads the complaints of the orthodox writers
against the Arians, one would think the Arians the most
execrable set of men that ever lived, they being loaded with
all the crimes that can possibly be committed, and repre-
sented as bad, or even worse, than the devil himself. But
no wise man will easily credit these accounts, which the
orthodox give of their enemies, because, as Socrates tells
us,2 u This was the practice of the bishops towards all they
deposed, to accuse and pronounce them impious, but not to
tell others the reasons why they accused them as such."
It was enough for their purpose to expose them to the public
odium, and make them appear impious to the multitude,
that so they might get them expelled from their rich sees,
* See note [T] at the end of the volume,
(l) Epist. xiii. (2) E. H. .1. 1. c. 24,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. S7
and be translated to them in their room. And this they did
as frequently as they could, to the introducing infinite cala-
mities and confusions into the Christian church. And if the
writings of the Arians had not been prudently destroyed, I
doubt not but we should have found as many charges laid by
them, with equal justice, against the orthodox, as the ortho-
dox have produced against them ; their very suppression of
the Arian writings being a very strong presuhiption against
them, and the many imperial edicts of Constantine, Theo-
dosius, Valentinian, Martian, and others, against heretics,
being an abundant demonstration that they had a deep share
in the guilt of persecution.
Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, in his letter to the
bishop of Constantinople,1 complains that Arius and others,
desirous of power and riches, did day and night invent
calumnies, and were continually exciting seditions and per-
secutions against him ; and Arius in his turn, in his letter to
Kusebius, of Nicomedia, with too much justice charges pope
Alexander with violently persecuting and oppressing him
upon account of what he called the truth, and using every
method to ruin him, driving him out of the city as an atheis-
tical person, for not agreeing with him in his sentiments
about the Trinity. Athauasius also bitterly exclaims
against the cruelty of the Arians, in his Apology for his
flight.2 "Whom have they not," says he, " used with the
greatest indignity that they have been able to lay hold of?
Who hath ever fallen into their hands, that they have had
any spite against, whom they have not so cruelly treated,
as either to murder or to maim him ? What place is there
where they have not left the monuments of their barbarity -:
What church is there which doth not lament their treachery
against their bishops ?" After this passionate exclamation
he mentions several bishops they had banished or put to
death, and the cruelties they made u^e of to force the ortho-
dox to renounce the faith, and to subscribe to the truth of
(l) Theod. 1. I.e. 4, 5. (2) Vol. I. p. 70'J.
88 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
the Arian doctrines. But might it not have been asked,
who was it that first brought in excommunications, depo-
sitions, banishments, and death, as the punishments of he-
resy ? Could not the Arians recriminate with justice ? Were
they not reproached as atheists, anathematized, expelled their
churches, exiled, and made liable to the punishment of death
by the orthodox ? Did not even they who complained of the
cruelty of the Arians in the most moving terms, create num-
berless confusions and slaughters by their violent intrusions
into the sees of their adversaries ? Was not Athanasius him-
self also accused to the emperor, by many bishops and
clergymen, who declared themselves orthodox, of being the
author of all the seditions and disturbances in the church,1
by excluding great multitudes from the public services of it ;
(l) The whole account, as given by Sozomen, is this : Eusebius of Nico-
media and Theognis accused Athanasius to Constantine, as the author of
seditions and disturbances in the church, and as excluding many who were
willing to enter into it ; whereas all would agree, if this one thing was granted.
Many bishops and clergymen affirmed these accusations against him were
true; and going frequently to the emperor, and affirming themselves to be
orthodox, accused Athanasius and the bishops of his party of being guilty of
murders, of putting some in chains, of whipping others, and burning of
churches. Upon this Athanasius wrote to Constantine, and signified to him
that his accusers were illegally ordained, made innovations upon the decrees
of the council of Nice, and were guilty of seditions and injuries-towards the
orthodox. Upon this Constantine was at a loss which to believe; but as
they thus accused one another, and the number of the accusers on each sida
grew troublesome to him ; out of his love of peace, he wrote to Athanasius
that he should hinder nobody from the communion of the church; and that
if he should have any future complaints of this nature against him, he would
immediately drive him out of Alexandria. The reader will observe, that the
charge against Athaqasius brought by Eusebius and Theognis, was confirmed
by many orthodox bishops, in the very presence of the emperor ; and that
Athanasius, instead of denying it, objects to the ordination and orthodoxy of
his accusers, and charges them with a bad treatment of the orthodox ; and
that the evidence on both sides appeared so strong, that the emperor knew
not which to believe ; but that, however, he was at last so far convinced of
the factious, turbulent spirit of Athanasius, that he ordered him to open the -
doors of the church, under pain of banishment.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 89
of murdering some, putting- others in chains, punishing
others with stripes and whippings, and of burning churches?
And if the enemies of Athanasius1 endeavoured to ruin him
by suborned witnesses and false accusations, Athanasius
himself used the same practices to destroy his adversaries ;
and particularly Eusebius of Nicomedia, by spiriting up a
woman to charge Eusebius with illicit connections, the
falsehood of which was detected at the council of Tyre.
His very ordination al-o to the bishopric of Alexandria,
was censured as clandestine and illegal. These things being-
reported to Constantine,1 he ordered a synod to meet at
Caesarea in Palestine, of which place Eusebius Pamphilus
was bishop, before whom Athanasius refused to appear.
But after the council was removed to Tyre, he was obliged
by force to come thither, and commanded to answer to the
several crimes objected against him. Some of them he
cleared himself of, and as to others he desired more time
for his vindication. At length, after many sessions, both
his accusers, and the multitude who were present in the
council, demanded his deposition as an impostor, a violent
man, and unworthy the priesthood. Upon this, Athanasius
tied from the synod ; after which they condemned him, and
deprived him of his bishopric, and ordered he should never
more enter Alexandria, to prevent his exciting tumults and
seditions. They also wrote to all the bishops to have no
communion with him, as one convicted of many crimes, and
as having convicted himself by his flight of many others, to
which he had not answered. And for this their procedure
they assigned these reasons ; that he despised the emperor's
orders, by not coming to Caesarea ; that he came with a
great number of persons to Tyre, and excited tumults and
disturbances in the council, sometimes refusing to answer
to the crimes objected against him, at other times reviling
all the bishops ; sometimes not obeying their summons, and
at others refusing to submit to their judgment ; that he was
'i) Philosterg. Cornpcn. E. H. L 8. c. 11. (2) Soz, 1. 2. c. 25, 28.
90 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
fully and evidently convicted of breaking in pieces the
sacred cup, by six bishops who had been sent into Egypt to
inquire out the truth. Athanasius, however, appealed to
Constantine,1 and prayed him, that he might have the
liberty of making his complaints in the presence of his
judges. Accordingly Eusebius of Nicomedia, and other
bishops came to Constantinople, where Athanasius was ; and
in an hearing before the emperor, they affirmed that the
council of Tyre had done justly in the cause of Athanasius,
produced their witnesses as to the breaking of the sacred
cup, and laid many other crimes to his charge. And though
Athanasius seems to have had the liberty he desired of con-
fronting his accusers, yet he could not make his innocence
appear : for notwithstanding he had endeavoured to preju-
dice the emperor against what they had done, yet he con-
firmed their transactions, commended them as a set of wise
and good bishops, censured Athanasius as a seditious, inso-
lent, injurious person, and banished' him to Treves, in
France. And when the people of Alexandria, of Atha-
nasius's party, tumult uously cried out for his return,
Antony the Great, a monk, wrote often to the emperor in
his favour. The emperor in return wrote to the Alex-
andrians, and charged them with madness and sedition,
and commanded the clergy and nuns to be quiet ; affirming
he could not alter his opinion, nor recall Athanasius, " being
condemned by an ecclesiastical judgment as an exciter of
sedition.7' He also wrote to the monk, telling him it was im-
possible " he should disregard the sentence of the council,"
because that though a few might pass judgment through
hatred or affection, yet it was not probable that such a large
number of famous and good bishops should be of such a
sentiment and disposition ; for that Athanasius was an
injurious and insolent man, and the cause of discord and
sedition.
Indeed Athanasius, notwithstanding his sad complaints
(1) Soz. E. H. p. 488, 491, 492.
THE HISTORY OF PERSFXUTION. 91
under persecution, and his expressly calling- it a diabolical
invention/ jet seems to be against it only when he and his
own party were persecuted, but not against persecuting the
enemies of orthodoxy. In his letter to Epictetus, bishop of
Corinth, he saith,2 u I wonder that your piety hath suffered
these tilings,1' (viz. the heresies he had before mentioned)
" and that you did not immediately put those heretics
under restraint, and propose the true faith to them ; that
if they would not forbear to contradict they might be de-
clared heretics ; for it is not to be endured that these
things should be either said or heard amongst Christians."
Aud in another place3 he says " that they ought to be had
in universal hatred for opposing the truth;" and comforts
himself, that the emperor, upon due information, would put
a stop to their wickedness, and that they would not be long
lived. And to mention no more, " I therefore exhort
you," says he,4 " let no one be deceived ; but as though the
Jewish impiety was prevailing over the faith of Christ, be
ye all zealous in the Lord. s And let every one hold fast
the faith he hath received from the fathers, which also the
fathers met together at Nice declared in writing-, and
endure none of those who may attempt to make any inno-
vations therein." It is needless to produce more instances
of this kind ; whosoever gives himself the trouble of look-
ing over any of the writings of this father, will find in them
the most furious invectives against the Arians, and that he
studiously endeavours to represent them in such colours,
as might render them the abhorrence of mankind, and excite
the world to their utter extirpation.
I write not these things out of any aversion to the me-
mory, or peculiar principles of Athanasius. Whether I
agree with him, or differ from him in opinion, I think
myself equally obliged to give impartially the true account
(1) Ad Imp. I. Const. Apol. p. 716. (4) Vol. I. p. 291.
(2) Vol. I. p. 584. (.5) p. 292.
(3) Orat. 1. cont. Ar. p. 304.
N 2
92
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
of him. And as this which I have given of him is drawn
partly from history, and partly from his own writings, I
think I cannot be justly charged with misrepresenting him.
To speak plainly, I think that Athanasius was a man of a
haughty and inflexible temper, and more concerned for
victory and power, than for truth, religion, or peace. The
word " consubstantial," that was inserted into the Nicene
creed,1 and the anathema denounced against all who would
or could not believe in it, furnished matter for endless de-
bates. Those who were against it, censured as blasphemers
those who used it ; and as denying the proper subsistence
of the Son, and as falling into the Sabellian heresy. The
consubstantialists, on the other side, reproached their adver-
saries as heathens, and with bringing in the polytheism of
the Gentiles. And though they equally denied the conse-
quences which their respective principles were charged
with, yet as the orthodox would not part with the word
" consubstantial," and the Arians could not agree to the
use of it, they continued their unchristian reproaches and
accusations of each other. Athanasius would yield to no
terms of peace, nor receive any into communion, who would
not absolutely submit to the decisions of the fathers of Nice.
In his letter to Johannes and Antiochus2 he exhorts them to
hold fast the confession of those fathers, and u to reject all
who should speak more or less than was contained in it."
And in his first oration against the Arians he declares^ in
plain terms,3 " That the expressing a person's sentiments
in the words of scripture was no sufficient proof of ortho-
doxy, because the devil himself used scripture words to
cover his wicked designs upon our Saviour ; and even
farther, that heretics were not to be received, though they
made use of the very expressions of orthodoxy itself."
With one of so suspicious and jealous a nature there could
scarce be any possible terms of peace ; it being extremely
unlikely, that without some kind allowances, and mutual
(l) Soz. 1. 2. c. 18. (2) Vol. I. p. 951. „ (3) p. 291.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. ,03
abatements, so wide a breach could ever be compromised.
Even the attempts of Constantine himself to soften Athana-
sius, and reconcile him to his brethren, had no other in-
fluence upon him, than to render him more imperious and
obstinate ; for after Arius had given in such a confession of
his faith as satisfied the emperor,1 and expressly denied
manv of the principles he had been charged with, and there-
upon humbly desired the emperor's interposition, that he
might be restored to the communion of the church ; Atha-
nasius, out of hatred to his enemy, flatly denied the empe-
ror's request, and told him, that it was impossible for those
who had once rejected the faith, and were anathematized,
ever to be wholly restored. This so provoked the emperor
that he threatened to depose and banish him, unless he sub-
mitted to his order ;z which he shortly after did, by sending-
him into France, upon an accusation of several bishops, who,
as Socrates intimates, were worthy of credit, that he had
said lie would stop the corn that was yearly sent to Con-
stantinople from the city of Alexandria. To such an height
of pride was this bishop now arrived, as even to threaten
the sequestration of the revenues of the empire. Constan-
tine also apprehended, that this step was necessary to the
peace of the church, because Athanasius absolutely refused
to communicate with Arius and his followers.
Soon after these transactions Arius died,3 and the manner
of his death, as it was reported by the orthodox, Athanasius
thinks of itself sufficient fully to condemn the Arian heresy,
and an evident proof that it was hateful to God. Nor did
Constantine himself long survive him; he was succeeded by
his three sons, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans. Con-
stantine the eldest recalled Athanasius from banishment,4
and restored him to his bishopric; upon which account5 there
(1) Soc. 1. I.e. 27. . (4) SOC. 1. 2. C. 8.
(2) Id. ibid. c. 35. (5) SOZ. 1. 3. C. 5.
(3) Ad Solit. Vit. Agen. Epist. p.
809, 810.
94 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION
arose most grievous quarrels and seditions, many being kil-
led, and many publicly whipped by Athanasius's order,
according to the accusations of his enemies. Constantius,
after his elder brother's death, convened a synod at Antioch
in Syria, where Athanasius was again deposed for these
crimes, and Gregory put into the see of Alexandria. In
this council a new creed was drawn up,1 in which the word
"consubstantial" was wholly omitted,"1 and the expressions
made use of so general, as that they might have been equally
agreed to by the orthodox and Arians. In the close of it
several anathemas were added, and particularly upon all
who should teach or preach otherwise than what this coun-
cil had received, because, as they themselves say, " they
did really believe and follow all things delivered by the
holy scriptures, both prophets and apostles." So that now
the whole Christian world was under a synodical curse, the
opposite councils having damned one another, and all that
differed from them. And if councils, as such, have any
authority to anathematize all who will not submit to them,
this authority equally belongs to every council ; and there-
fore it was but a natural piece of revenge, that as the council
of Nice had sent all the Arians to the devil, the Arians, in
their turn, should take the orthodox along with them for
company, and thus repay one anathema with another.
Constantius himself was warmly on the Arian side, and
favoured the bishops of that party only, and ejected Paul
the orthodox bishop from the see of Constantinople, as a
person altogether unworthy of it, Macedonius being sub-
stituted in his room.3 Macedonius was in a different scheme,
or at least expressed himself in different words both from the
orthodox and Arians,4 and asserted, that the Son was not
consubstantial, but o^oma-i®-, not of the same, but a like sub-
stance with the Father ; and openly propagated his opinion,
(1) Soz. 1. 3. c. 5. (4) Athanas. de Sanct. Trin. V. 2.
(2) Soc. 1. 2. c. 10. p. 210.
(3) Soc. 1. 3. c. 4.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION 95
after he had thrust himself into the bishopric of Paul.1 Thw
the orthodox party highly resented, opposing Hermogeftes,
whom Constantius had sent to introduce him: and in their
rage burnt down his house, and drew him round the
streets by his feet till tjiev had murdered him. But not-
withstanding the emperor's orders were thus opposed, and
his officers killed by the orthodox party, he treated them
with great lenity, and in this instance punished them much
kttfi than their insolence and fury deserved. Soon after this,
Athana^ius and Paul2 were restored again to their respective
sees; and upon Athanasius's entering Alexandria great dis-
turbances arose, which were attended with the destruction
of many persons, and Athanasius accused of being the author
of all those evils. Soon after Paul's return to Constan-
tinople he was banished from thence again by the emperor's
order, and Macedonius re-entered into possession of that
Bee, upon which occasion 3150 persons were murdered, some
by the soldiers, and others by being pressed to death by the
croud. Athanasius,3 also, soon followed him into banish-
ment, being accused of selling the corn which Constantine
the Great had given tor the support of the poor of the
church of Alexandria, and putting the money in his own
pocket ; and being therefore threatened by Constantiu-
with death. But they were both, a little while after, re-
called by Constans, then banished again by Constantius ;
and Paul, as some say, murdered by his enemies the Allans,
as he wa< carrying into exile; though, as Athanasius him-
self owns,4 the Allans expressly denied it, and said that he
died of some distemper. Macedonius having thus gotten
quiet possession of the see of Constantinople, prevailed with
the emperor to publish a law,5 by which tho>e of the con-
-ubstantial, or orthodox party, were driven, not only out of
the churches but cities too, and many of them compelled to
(1) Soc. 1. 2. c. 13. (4) Ad Sol. Vit. Ag. p. glS.
(2) Soc. 1. 2. c. 15. SOC. 1. % C 27
(3) C. 17,
96 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
communicate with the Arians by stripes and torments, by
proscriptions and banishments, and other violent methods
of severity. Upon the banishment of Athanasius,* whom
Constantius, in his letter to the citizens of Alexandria, calls
iC an impostor, a corrupter of men's souls, a disturber of
the city, a pernicious fellow, one convicted of the worst
crimes, not to be expiated by his suffering death ten times;"
George was put into the see of Alexandria, whom the em-
peror, in the same letter, stiles " a most venerable person,8
and the most capable of all men to instruct them in heavenly
things;" though Athanasius, in his usual style, calls him " an
idolater and hangman, and one capable of all violences,
rapines, and murders;" and whom he actually charges with
committing the most impious actions and outrageous cruel-
ties. Thus, as Socrates observes,3 was the church torn in
pieces by a civil war for the sake of Athanasius and the
word " consubstantial."
The truth is, that the Christian clergy were now become
the chief incendiaries and disturbers of the empire, and the
pride of the bishops, and the fury of the people on each side
were grown to such an height, as that there scarce ever was
an election or restoration of a bishop in the larger cities,
but it was attended with slaughter and blood. Atha-
nasius was several times banished and restored, at
the expense of blood; the orthodox were deposed, and
the Arians substituted in their room, with the murder
of thousands ; and as the controversy was now no longer
about the plain doctrines of uncorrupted Christianity, but
about power and dominion, high preferments, large reve-
nues, and secular honours ; agreeably hereto, the bishops
were introduced into their churches,4 and placed on their
thrones, by armed soldiers, and paid no regard to the eccle-
siastical rules, or the lives of their flocks, so they could get
possession, and keep out their adversaries : and when once
(1) Ad Const. Apol. p. 695. (3) 1. 2. C. 25.
(2) Cont. Ar. Orat. 1. p. 290, (4) Soc. 1. 2. c. 15, Iff,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 97
they were in, they treated those who differed from them
without moderation or mercy, turning them out of their
churches, denying them the liberty of worship, putting them
under an anathema, and persecuting them with innumerable
methods of cruelty; as is evident from the accounts given
by the ecclesiastical historians, of Athanasius, Macedonia,
George, and others, which may be read at large, in the fore-
mentioned places. In a word, they seemed to treat one
another with the same implacable bitterness and severity,
as ever their common enemies, the heathens, treated them ;
as though they thought that persecution for conscience sake
had been the distinguishing precept of the Christian reli-
gion ; and that they could not more effectually recommend
and distinguish themselves as the disciples of Christ, than
by tearing and devouring one another. This made Julian,1
the emperor, say of them, " that he found by experience,
that even beasts are not so cruel to men, as the generality
of Christians were to one another."
This was the unhappy state of the church in the reign
of Constantius, which affords us little more than the history
of councils and creeds, differing from, and contrary to each
other ; bishops deposing, censuring, and anathematizing
their adversaries, and the Christian people divided into
factions under their respective leaders, for the sake of words
they understood nothing of the sense of, and striving for
victory even to bloodshed and death. Upon the succession
of Julian to the empire, though the contending parties could
not unite against the common enemy, yet they were by the
emperor's clemency and wisdom kept in tolerable peace and
order.* The bishops, which had been banished by Constan-
tius his predecessor, he immediately recalled, ordered their
effects, which had been confiscated, to be restored to them,
and commanded that no one should injure or hurt any
Christian whatsoever. And as Ammianus Marcellinus,3
an heathen writer of those times, tells us, he caused the
(l) Am. Mar. I. 22. c. 5. (2) Soc, 1. 3. c. 1, (3) 1. 22, c. $,
o
98 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Christian bishops and people, who were at variance with
each other, to come into his palace, and there admonished
them, that they should every one profess their own religion,
without hindrance or fear, provided they did not disturb the
public peace by their divisions. This was an instance of
great moderation and generosity, and a pattern worthy the
imitation of all his successors.
In the beginning* of Julian's reign1 some of the inhabi-
tants of Alexandria, and, as was reported, the friends of
Athanasius, by his advice, raised a great tumult in the city,
and murdered George, the bishop of the place, by tearing
him in pieces, and burning his body ; upon which Athana-
sius returned immediately from his banishment, and took
possession of his see, turning out the Arians from their
churches, and forcing them to hold their assemblies in pri-
vate and mean places. * Julian, with great equity, severely
reproved the Alexandrians for this their violence and cruelty,
telling them, that though George might have greatly in-
jured them, yet they ought not to have revenged themselves
on him, but to have left him to the justice of the laws.
Athanasius, upon his restoration, immediately convened
a synod at Alexandria, in which was first asserted the divi-
nity of the Holy Spirit, and his consubstantiality with the
Father and the Son . x But his power there was but short ; for
being accused to Julian as the destroyer of that city, and all
Egypt, he saved himself by flight,3 but soon after secretly
returned to Alexandria, where he lived in great privacy till
the storm was blown over by Julian's death, and the suc-
cession of Jovian to the empire, who restored him to his
see, in which he continued undisturbed to his death.
Although Julian behaved himself with great moderation,
upon his first accession to the imperial dignity, towards the
Christians, as well as others, yet his hatred to Christianity
* See note [U] at the end of the volume.
(1) Soc. 1. s. c. 2, 3, 4. Phjlost* 1. 7. c 2. (3) Theod. I. 4. c. %
(2) Philost.1.7. c. 13.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 99
soon appeared in many instances.1 For though he did not,
like the rest of the heathen emperors, proceed to sanguinary
laws, yet he commanded, that the children of Christians
should not be instructed in the Grecian language and learn-
ing. By another edict he ordained, that no Christian should
bear any office in the army, nor have any concern in the
distribution and management of the public revenues.* He
taxed very heavily, and demanded contributions from all
who would not sacrifice, to support the vast expences he
was at, in his eastern expeditions. And when the governors
of the provinces took occasion from hence to oppress and
plunder them, he dismissed those who complained with this
scornful answer, "your God hath commanded you to suffer
persecution I" He also deprived the clergy of all their im-
munities, honours, and revenues, granted them by Constan-
tine; abrogated the laws made in their favour, and ordered
they should be listed amongst the number of soldiers. He
destroyed several of their churches, and stripped them of
their treasure and sacred vessels. Some he punished with
banishment, and others with death, under pretence of their
having pulled down some of the pagan temples, and insulted
himself.
The truth is, that the Christian bishops and people
shewed such a turbulent and seditious spirit, that it was
no wonder that Julian should keep a jealous eye over them ;
and, though otherwise a man of great moderation, connive at
the severities his officers sometimes practised on them.
Whether he would have proceeded to any farther extremi-
ties against them, had he returned victorious from his Per-
sian expedition, as Theodorit* affirms he would, cannot, I
think, be determined. He was certainly a person of great
humanity in his natural temper ; but how far his own super-
stition, and the imprudencies of the Christians, might have
altered this disposition, it is impossible to say. Thus much
is certain, that the behaviour of the Christians towards him,
(l) Soc. 1. 3. c. 14, &c. (2) Theod. 1. 3. c. 6, &c. (3) Ibid. 1. 3. c. 21,
o2
100 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
was, in many instances, very blameable, and such as tended
to irritate his spirit, and awaken his resentment. But what-
ever his intentions were, he did not live to execute them,
being slain in his Persian expedition.
He was succeeded by Jovian,* who was a Christian by
principle and profession. Upon his return from Persia the
troubles of the church immediately revived, the bishops and
heads of parties crowding about him, each hoping- that he
would list on their side, and grant them authority to oppress
their adversaries. Athanasius,2 amongst others, writes to
him in favour of the Nicene creed, and warns him against
the blasphemies of the Arians ; and though he doth not di-
rectly urge him to persecute them, yet he tells him, that it is
necessary to adhere to the decisions of that council concern-
ing the faith, and that their creed was divine and apostolical;
and that no man ought to reason or dispute against it, as the
Arians did. A synod also of certain bishops met at Antioch
in Syria ; and though several of them had been opposers of
the Nicene doctrine before, yet finding that this was the
faith espoused by Jovian, they with great obsequiousness
readily confirmed it, and subscribed it, and in a flattering
letter sent it to him, representing that this true and ortho-
dox faith was the great centre of unity. The followers also
of Macedonius, who rejected the word " consubstantial,"
and held the Son to be only "like to the Father," most
humbly besought him, that such who asserted the Son to be
unlike the Father might be driven from their churches, and
that they themselves might be put into them in their room ;
with the bishops names subscribed to the petition. But
Jovian, though himself in the orthodox doctrine, did not
suffer himself to be drawn into measures of persecution by
the arts of these temporizing prelates, but dismissed them
civilly with this answer : " 1 hate contention, and love those
only that study peace ;" declaring, that " he would trouble
none upon account of their faith, whatever it was ; and that
(i) Soc. 1. 3. C. 24, 25. (2) Theod. 1. 4. C. 4=
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 101
lie would favour and esteem such only, who should shew
themselves leaders in restoring the peace of the church.1'
Themistius the philosopher, in his oration upon Joviau's
consulate, commends him very justly on this account, that
he gave free liberty to every one to worship God as he
would, and despised the flattering insinuations of those who
would have persuaded him to the use of violent methods ;
concerning whom he pleasantly, but with too much truth,
said, " that he found, by experience, that they worship not
God, but the purple."
The two emperors, Valentin ianus and Valens, who suc-
ceeded Jovian, were of very different tempers, and embraced
different parties in religion. The former was of the ortho-
dox side ;* and though he favoured those most who were of
his own sentiments, yet he gave no disturbance to the Arians.
On the contrary, Valens, his brother, was of a rigid and san-
guinary disposition, and severely persecuted all who differed
from him. In the beginning of their reign5 a synod met in
Illyricum, who again decreed the consubstantiality of Father^
Son, and Holy Ghost.3 This the two emperors declared in
a letter their assent to, and ordered that this doctrine should
be preached. However, they both published laws for the
toleration of all religions, even the heathen and Arian.4 But
Valens was soon prevailed on by the arts of Eudoxius^
bishop of Constantinople, to forsake both his principles of
religion and moderation, and embracing the Arian opinions,
he cruelly persecuted all those who were of the orthodox
party. The conduct of the orthodox synod met at Lamp-
sacus was the first thing that enraged him ; for having ob-
tained of him leave to meet, for the amendment and settle-
ment of the faith, after two months consultation they decreed
the doctrine of the Son's being like the Father as to his
essence, to be orthodox, and deposed all the bishops of the
(1) Soc. I. 4. c. I. (4) Soc. I. 4. c. 6.
(2) Theod. 1. 4. c. 8. (5) Soz. I. 6. c. 7.
(3) Cod. Theod. tit. 16. L 9,
102 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Arian party. This highly exasperated Yalens, who, there-
upon, called a council of Arian bishops, and commanded
the bishops that composed the council at Lampsacus to em-
brace the opinions of Eudoxius the Arian ; and upon their
refusal immediately sent them into banishment, and gave
their churches to their enemies, sparing only Paulinus, for
the remarkable sanctity of his life. After this he entered
into more violent measures, and caused the orthodox,
some of theiri to be whipped, others to be disgraced, others
to be imprisoned, and others to be fined.1 He also put
great numbers to death, and particularly caused eighty of
them at once to be put on board a ship, and the ship to be
fired when it was sailed out of the harbour, where they
miserably perished by the water and the flames. These
persecutions he continued to the end of his reign, and was
greatly assisted in them by the bishops of the Arian party.
In the mean time great disturbances happened at Rome.*
Liberius, bishop of that city, being dead, Ursinus, a deacon
of that church, and Damasus, were both nominated to suc-
ceed him. The party of Damasus prevailed, and got him
chosen and ordained. Ursinus being enraged that Damasus
was preferred before him, set up separate meetings, and
at last procured himself to be privately ordained by certain
obscure bishops. This occasioned great disputes amongst the
citizens, which should obtain the episcopal dignity ; and the
matter was carried to such an height, that great numbers were
murdered in the quarrel on both sides, no less than one hun-
dred and thirty-seven persons being destroyed in the church
itself, according to Ammianus,3 who adds, " that it was no
wonder to see those who were ambitious of human greatness,
contending with so much heat and animosity for that dignity,
because, when they had obtained it, they were sure to be
enriched by the offerings of the matrons, of appearing abroad
in great splendor, of being admired for their costly coaches,
(l) Soc. ibid, c, 15, 16. Theod. (2) Soc. 1. 4. c. 29.
i 4> C. 22t (5) Soc. 1. 27. C. 3.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 103
sumptuous in their feasts, out-doing sovereign princes in
the expenses of their tables." For which reason Prates-
tatus, an heathen, who was prefect of the city the following
year, said, " Make me bishop of Rome, and I'll be a
Christian too."
Gratian, the son of Valentinian, his partner and suc-
cessor in the empire, was of the orthodox party, and after
the death of his uncle Valens recalled those whom he had
banished, and restored them to their sees. But as to the
Arians,1 he sent Sapores, one of his captains, to drive them,
as wild beasts, out of all their churches. Socrates and
Sozomen tell us, however, that by a law he ordained, that
persons of all religions should meet, without fear, in their
several churches, and worship according to their own way,
the Eunomians, Photinians, and Manichees excepted.
SECT. IV.
The first council of Constantinople ; or second general
council.
Thkodosius, soon after his advancement by Gratian to
the empire, discovered a very warm zeal for the orthodox
opinions ;a for observing that the city of Constantinople wafl
divided into dilFerent sects, he wrote a letter to them from
Tlicssalonica, wherein he tells them, " that it was his plea-
sure, that all his subjects should be of the same religion
with Damasus bishop of Rome, and Peter bishop of Alex-
andria; and that their church, only, should be called catho-
lic, who worshipped the divine Trinity as equal in honour:
and that those who were of another opinion should be
called heretics, become infamous, and be subject to other
(l) Theod, I. i. c. 2. (2) Soz, 1. 7. c. i, S-
104 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
punishments. He also forbid assemblies and disputations
in the Forum, and made a law for the punishment of those
that should presume to argue about the essence and nature
of God. Upon his first coming to Constantinople,* being
very solicitous for the peace and increase of the church, he
sent for Demophilus the Arian bishop, and asked him whe-
ther he would consent to the Nicene faith, and thus accept
the peace he offered him; adding this strong argument, u if
jou refuse to do it, I will drive you from your churches."
And upon Demophilus's refusal, the emperor was as good
as his word; and turned him and all the Arians out of the
city, after they had been in possession of the churches there
for forty years.2 But being willing more effectually to ex-
tinguish heresy, he summoned a council of bishops of his own
persuasion, A. C. 381, to meet together at Constantinople, in
order to confirm the Nicene faith ; the number of them were
one hundred and fifty ; to these, for form's sake, were added
thirty-six of the Macedonian party. And accordingly this coun-
cil,3 which is reckoned the second oecumenical or general one,
all of them, except the Macedonians, did decree that the Ni-
cene faith should be the standard of orthodoxy ; and that all
heresies should be condemned. They also made an addition
to that creed, explaining the orthodox doctrine of the Spirit
against Macedonius, viz. after the words Holy Ghost, they
inserted, " the Lord, the Quickner,, proceeding from the
Father, whom with the Father and the Son we worship and
glorify, and who spake by the prophets." When the council
was ended,4 the emperor put forth two edicts against heretics ;
by the first prohibiting them from holding any assemblies ;
and by the second, forbidding them to meet in fields or vil-
lages, ordering the houses where they met to be confiscated,
and commanding that such who went to other places to
teach their opinions, or perform their religious worship,
(1) Soc. 1. 5. c 7. (3) The second general council,
(2) c. 8. A. C. 381.
(4) Cod.Theod.lll, 12.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 105
should be forced to return to the places where they dwelt,
condemning all those officers and magistrates of cities who
should not prevent such assemblies. A little while after
the conclusion of this council,1 finding that many disorders
were still occasioned through the opposition of the several
parties to one another, he convened the principal persons
of each, and ordered them to deliver into his hand a written
form of their belief; which after he had received, he retired
by himself, and earnestly prayed to God, that he would
enable him to make choice of the truth. And when after
this he had perused the several papers delivered to him, he
tore them all in pieces, except that which contained the doc-
trine of the indivisible Trinity, to which he intirely adhered.
After this he published a law, by which he forbid heretics
to worship or preach, or to ordain bishops or others, com-
manding some to be banished, others to be rendered in-
famous, and to be deprived of the common privileges of
citizens, with other grievous penalties of the like nature.
"Sozomen, however, tells us, that he did not put these laws
in execution, because his intention was not to punish his
subjects, but to terrify them into the same opinions of God
with himself, praising at the same time those who volun-
tarily embraced them. Socrates also confirms the same,
telling us,a that he only banished Eunomius from Con-
stantinople for holding private assemblies, and reading his
books to them, and thereby corrupting many with his doc-
trine. But that as to others he gave them no disturbance,
nor forced them to communicate with hhn, but allowed them
all their several meetings, and to enjoy their own opinions
as to the Christian faith. Some he permitted to build
churches without the cities, and the Novatians to retain
their churches within, because they held the same doctrines
with himself.
Arcadius and Honorius,3 the sons and successors of
* See note [X] at the end of the volume.
(1) Soz, 1. 7. C. 12. (2) 1. 5. C. 20. (3) Soz. 1. 8. c. 1, 2, 4.
F
106 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Theodosius, embraced the orthodox religion and party, and
confirmed all the decrees of the foregoing emperors in their
favour. Soon after their accession to the imperial dignity,
Nectarius bishop of Constantinople died, and John, called
for his eloquence Chrysostom, was ordained in his room :
he was a person of a very rigid and severe temper, an enemy
to heretics, and against allowing them any toleration.
Gaina, one of the principal officers of Arcadius, and who
was a Christian of the Arian persuasion, desired of the em-
peror one church for himself, and those of his opinion,
within the city. Chrysostom being informed of it, imme-
diately went to the palace, taking with him all the bishops
he could find at Constantinople ; and in the presence of the
emperor bitterly inveighed against Gaina, who was himself
at the audience, and reproached him for his former poverty,
as also with insolence and ingratitude. Then he produced
the law that was made by Theodosius, by which heretics
were forbidden to hold assemblies within the walls of the
city ; and turning to the emperor, persuaded him to keep in
force all the laws against heretics ; adding, that it was better
voluntarily to quit the empire, than to be guilty of the im-
piety of betraying the house of God. Chrysostom carried
his point, and the consequence of it was an insurrection of
the Goths, in the city of Constantinople ; which had like to
have ended in the burning the imperial palace, and the
murder of the emperor, and did actually end in the cutting
off all the Gothic soldiers, and the burning of their church,
with great numbers of persons in it, who fled thither for
safety, and were locked in to prevent their escape. His
violent treatment of several bishops,1 and the arbitrary man-
ner of his deposing them, and substituting others in their
room, contrary to the desires and prayers of the people, is
but too full a proof of his imperious temper, and love of
power. Not content with this, he turned his eloquence
against the empress Eudoxia, and in a set oration inveighing
(1) SOZ. 1. 8. C, 6.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 107
against bad women, he expressed himself in such a manner,
as that both his friends and enemies believed that the invec-
tive was chiefly levelled against her. This so enraged her
that she soon procured his deposition and banishment.
Being soon after restored, he added new provocations to the
former, by rebuking the people for certain diversions they
took at a place where the statue of the empress was erected.
This she took for an insult on her person, and when Chry-
sostom knew her displeasure on this account, he used more
severe expressions against her than before, saying, " Ilero-
dias is enraged again ; she raises fresh disturbances, and
again desires the head of John in a charger." On this and
other accounts he was deposed and banished by a synod con-
vened for that purpose, bishops being always to be had in
those days easily, to do what was desired or demanded of
them by the emperors. * Chrysostom died in his banish-
ment, according to the Christian wish of Epiphanius,1 " I hope
you will not die bishop of Constantinople ;" which Chry-
sostom returned with a wish of the same good temper,
iC I hope you will not live to return to jour own city ;" so
deadly was the hatred of these saints and fathers against
each other. After Chrysostom's death, his favourers and
friends were treated with great severity, not indeed on the
account of religion, but for other crimes of sedition they
were charged with ; ai.d particularly, for burning down one
of the churches in the city,2 the flames of which spread them-
selves to the senate house, and entirely consumed it.
Under the same emperors the Donatists3 gave sad speci-
mens of their cruelty in Africa towards the orthodox, as St.
Austin informs us. They seized on Maximianus, one of the
African bishops, as he was standing at the altar, beat him
unmercifully, and ran a sword into his body, leaving him for
dead. And a little after he adds, that it would be tedious
* See note [Y] at the end of the volume,
(l) Soz. 1. 8. c. 16, (3) Epist. 50. ad Bon. & Epist. 68.
(2; Soc. 1. 6. c. 18. ad Januar.
r 2
108 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
to recount the many horrible things they made the bishopfc
and clergy suffer ; some had their eyes put out ; one bishop
had his hands and tongue cut off, and others were cruelly
destroyed. I forbear, says Austin, to mention their barbar-
ous murders, and demolishing of houses, not private ones
only, but the very churches themselves. Honorius* published
very severe edicts against them, ordaining, that if they did
not, both clergy and laity, return to the catholics by such a
day, they should be heavily fined, their estates should be
confiscated, the clergy banished, and their churches all given
to the catholics. These laws Austin commends as rightly
and piously ordained, maintaining the lawfulness of persecut-
ing heretics by all manner of ways, death only excepted.
Under the reign of Theodosius, Arcadius's son, those
who were called heretics were grievously persecuted by the
orthodox. Theodosius,* bishop of Synnada in Phrygia,
expelled great numbers of the followers of Macedonius from
the city and country round about, "not from any zeal for the
true faith," as Socrates says, " but through covetousness, and
a design to extort money from them." On this account he
used all his endeavours to oppress them, and particularly
Agapetus, thefr bishop ; armed his clergy against them, and
accused them before the tribunal of the judges. And be-
cause he did not think the governors of the provinces suffi-
cient to carry on this good work of persecution, he went to
Constantinople to procure fresh edicts against them ; but by
this means he lost his bishopric, the people refusing him
admission into the church upon his return, and choosing
Agapetus, whom he had persecuted, in his room.
Theophilus,3 bishop of Alexandria, the great enemy of
Ghrysostom, being dead, Cyrill was enthroned in his room,
not without great disturbance and opposition from the
people, and used his power for the oppression of heretics ;
for immediately upon his advancement he shut up all the
(1) Cod. Theod. 1. 62. (s) Soc, 1. 7. c. 7.
(2) Soc. 1. 7. Co S.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 109
churches of the Novatians in that city, took away all their
sacred treasures, and stripped Theopemptus their bishop of
every thing that he had. Nor was this much to be won-
dered at, since, as Socrates observes/ from the time of
Theophilus, Cy rill's predecessor, "the bishop of Alexandria
began to assume an authority and power above what be-
longed to the sacerdotal order." On this account the great
men hated the bishops, because they usurped to themselves
a good part of that power which belonged to the imperial
governors of provinces ; and particularly Cyrill was "hated
by Orestes, prefect of Alexandria, not only for this reason,
•but because he was a continual spy upon his actions. At
length their hatred to each other publicly appeared. Cyrill
took on him, without acquainting the governor, or contrary
to his leave, to deprive the Jews of all their synagogues, and
banished them from the city, and encouraged the mob to
plunder them of their effects. This the prefect highly re-
sented, and refused the bishop's offers of peace and friend-
ship. Upon this, about fifty monks came into the city for
Cy rill's defence, and meeting the prefect in his chariot,
publicly insulted him, calling him sacrificer and pagan ;
adding many other injurious reproaches. One of them,
called Ammonius, wounded him in the head with a stone,
which he flung at him with great violence, and covered him
all over with blood ; and being, according to the laws, put
by Orestes publicly to the torture, he died through the
severity of it. St. Cyrill honourably received the body into
the church, gave him the new name of Thaumasius, or, the
Wonderful ; ordered him to be looked on as a martyr, and
lavishly extolled him in the church, as a person murdered
for his religion. This scandalous procedure of Cy rill's the
Christians themselves were ashamed of, because it was pub*
licly known that the monk was punished for his insolence ;
and even St. Cyrill himself had the modesty at last to use
his endeavours that the whole affair might be entirely for-
(1) L 7, C. 13/14,
110 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
gotten. The murder also of Hypatia,* by CyrilPs friends
and clergy, merely out of envy to her superior skill in phi-
losophy, brought him and his church of Alexandria under
great infamy ; for as she was returning home from a visit,
one Peter, a clergyman, with some other murderers, seized
on her, dragged her out of her chariot, carried her to one of
the churches, stripped her naked, scraped her to death with
shells, then tore her in pieces, and burnt her body to ashes.
Innocent* also, bishop of Rome, grievously persecuted
the Novatians, and took from them many churches; and,
as Socrates observes, .was the first bishop of that see who
disturbed them. Celestine also, one of his successors,
imitated this injustice, and took from the Novatians the re-
mainder of their churches, and forced them to hold their
assemblies in private;3 " for the bishops of Rome, as well
as those of Alexandria, had usurped a tyrannical power,
which, as priests, they had no right to;" and would not suf-
fer those who agreed with them in the faith, as the Novatians
did, to hold public assemblies, but drove them out of their
oratories, and plundered them of all their substance.
Nestorius bishop of Constantinople, immediately upon
his advancement, shewed himself a valiant persecutor ; for
as soon as ever he was ordained, he addressed himself to
the emperor before the whole congregation,4 and said, " Purge
me, O emperor, the earth from heretics, and I will give thee
in recompence the kingdom of heaven. Conquer with me
the heretics, and I with thee will subdue the Persians. 7
And, agreeable to his bloody wishes, the fifth day after hi«
consecration, he endeavoured to demolish the church of the
Arians, in which they were privately assembled for prayer.
The Arians, in their rage, seeing the destruction of it deter-
mined, set fire to it themselves, and occasioned the burning
down the neighbouring houses ; and for this reason, not only
the heretics, but those of his own persuasion, distinguished
(1) Soc. I. i, c. 15. (3) Soc. I. 7. c. 11,
(2) Id. ibid. c. 9, (4) c. 29,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. Ill
him by the name of Incendiary. But he did not rest here,
but tried all tricks and methods to destroy heretics ; and, by
these means, endangered the subversion of Constantinople
itself. He persecuted the Novatians, through hatred of
Paul their bishop for his eminent piety. He grievously
oppressed those who were not orthodox, as to the day of
keeping Easter, in Asia, Lydia, and Caria, and occasioned
the murders of great numbers on this account at Miletus
and Sardis.
Few indeed of the bishops were free from this wicked
spirit. Socrates, however, tells us,1 that Atticus, bishop of
Constantinople, was a person of great piety and prudence,
and that he did not offer violence to any of the heretics, but,
that after he had once attempted to terrify them, he behaved
more mildly and gently to them afterwards. Proclus* also,
bishop of the same city, who had been brought up under
Atticus, was a careful imitator of his piety and virtue, and
exercised rather greater moderation than his master, being
gentle towards all men, from a persuasion that this was a
much more proper method than violence, to reduce heretics
to the true faith, and therefore he never made use of the
imperial power for this purpose. And in this he imitated
Theodosius the emperor, who was not at all concerned or
displeased that any should think differently of God from
himself. However, the number of bishops of this temper
was but small. Nothing pleased the generality of them
but methods of severity, and the utter ruin and extirpation
of their adversaries.
Under the reign of this emperor, the Arians also, in
their turn, used the orthodox with no greater moderation
than the orthodox had used them. The Y^andals, who were
partly pagans, and partly Arians, had seized on Spain and
Africa, and exercisod innumerable cruelties on those who
were not of the same religion with themselves. Trasimond,
their general in Spain, and Genseric, in Africa, used all
(1) Soz. 1, 7. c. 2. (2) Soc. 1. 7. c. 41.
112 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
possible endeavours to propagate Arianism throughout all
their provinces. And, the more effectually to accomplish
this design, they filled all places with slaughter and blood,
hy the advice of the bishops of their party, burning dowij
churches, and putting the orthodox clergy to the most
grievous and unheard of tortures, to make them discover
the gold and silver of their churches, repeating these kind of
tortures several times, so that many actually died under them.
Genseric seized on all the sacred books he could find, that
they might be deprived of the means of defending their
opinions. By the counsel of his bishops, he ordered that
none but Arians should be admitted to court, or employed
in any offices about his children, or so much as enjoy the
benefit of a toleration. Armogestes, Masculon, and Saturus,
three officers of his court, were inhumanly tortured to make
them embrace Arianism ; and, upon their refusal, they were
stripped of their honours and estates, and forced to protract
a miserable life in the utmost poverty and want. These
and many more instances of Genseric's cruelty towards the
orthodox, during a long reign of thirty-eight years, are re-
lated by Victor, L i. in fine.
SECT. Y. >
The council of Ephesus ; or third general council*
During these transactions, a new controversy, of a very
extraordinary and important nature, arose m the church,
which, as the other had done before, occasioned many dis-
orders and murders, and gave birth to the third general
council. NestoriuSj1 the persecuting bishop of Constanti-
nople, although tolerably sound in the doctrine of the real
(l) Evag. E. H. I. 1. c. 2. Soe. I 7. c. 32, 34
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 113
deity of the Logos, jet excepted against the Virgin Mary's
being called " mother of God/' because, as he argued, " Mary
was a woman, and that, therefore, God could not be born
of her;" adding, " I cannot call him God, who once was not
above two or three months old;" and, therefore, he substi-
tuted another word in the room of it, calling her " mother
of Christ." By this means he seemed to maintain not only
the distinction of the two natures of Christ, for he allowed
the proper personality and subsistence of the Logos, but
that there were also two distinct persons in Christ; the one
a mere man, absolutely distinct from the word, and the other
God, as absolutely distinct from the human nature. This
caused great disturbances in the city of Constantinople, and
the dispute was thought of such consequence, as to need a
council to settle it. Accordingly, Theodosius convened one
at Ephesus,1 A. C. 431. of which Cyrill was president; and
as he hated Nestorius, he persuaded the bishops of his own
party to decree, that the Virgin was, and should be, the
mother of God, and to anathematize all who should not
confess her in this character, nor own that the word of God
the Father was united substantially to the flesh, making one
Christ of two natures, both God and man together; or
who should ascribe what the scriptures say of Christ to
two persons or subsistences, interpreting some of the man
exclusive of the word; and others of the word, exclusive
of the human nature ; or who should presume to call the
man Christ, "the bearer, or the receptacle of God," instead
of God : and hastily to depose Nestorius five days before
the coming of John, bishop of Antioch, with his suffragan
bishops. John, upon his arrival at Ephesus, deposed Cyrill,
in a council of bishops held for that purpose, and accused
him of being the author of all the disorders occasioned
by this affair, and of having rashly proceeded to the desposi-
tion of Nestorius. Cyrill was soon absolved by his own
council, and, in revenge, deposed John of Antioch, and all
1) Soc. ibid. Evag. L 1. c. 5-
Q
114 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
the bishops of his party. But they were both reconciled by
the emperor, and restored each other to their respective sees,
and, as the effect of their reconciliation, both subscribed to
the condemnation of Nestorius, who was sent into banish-
ment, where, after suffering great hardships, he died miser-
ably ; being thus made to taste those sweets of persecution
he had so liberally given to others, in the time of his power
and prosperity. The emperor himself,1 though at first he
disapproved of this council's conduct, yet afterwards was
persuaded to ratify their decrees, and published a law, by
which all who embraced the opinions of Nestorius, were, if
bishops or clergymen, ordered to be expelled the churches ;
or, if laymen, to be anathematized. This occasioned irre-
concilable hatreds amongst the bishops and people,* who
were so enraged against each other, that there was no pass-
ing with any safety from one province or city to another,
because every one pursued his neighbour as his enemy, and,
without any fear of God, revenged themselves on one
another, under a pretence of ecclesiastical zeal.
SECT. VI.
The council of Choice don ; or fourth general council.
Marcian,* the successor of Theodosius in the empire,
embraced the orthodox party and opinions, and was very
desirous to bring about an entire uniformity in the worship
of God, and to establish the same form of doxologies amongst
all Christians whatsoever.4 Agreeably to this his temper,
Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, addressed him soon after his
(1) Evag. I. l. c. 12. (3) Evag. 1. 2. c. 1.
(2) Chal. Concil. Act. 10. Frag. (4) Concil. Chalced. Act. IS.
Epist. Edes. Epic,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 115
promotion, in these words : " God hath justly given you
the empire, that you should govern all for the universal
welfare, and for the peace of his holy church: and, there-
fore, before and in all things, take care of the principles of
the orthodox and most holy faith, and extinguish the roar-
ings of the heretics, and bring to light the doctrines of piety."
The legatee also of Leo, bishop of Rome, presented him
their accusations against Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria ;
as did also Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum, beseeching the
emperor that these things might be judged and determined
by a synod. Marcian consented, and ordered the bishops
to meet first at Nice, and afterwards at Chalcedon, 451.
This was the fourth oecumenical or general council, consist-
ing of near six hundred prelates. The principal cause of
their assembling was the Eutychian heresy. Eutyches, a
presbyter of Constantinople, had asserted, in the reign of
Theodosius, jun.1 that " Jesus Christ consisted of two na-
tures before his union or incarnation, but that after this he
had one nature only." He also denied that " the body of
Christ was of the same substance with ours." On this ac-
count, he was deposed in a particular council at Constanti-
nople, by Flavian, bishop of that place ; but, upon his com-
plaining to the emperor that the acts of that council were
falsified by his enemies, a second synod of the neighbouring
bishops met in the same city, who, after examining those acts*
found them to be genuine, and confirmed the sentence
against Eutyches. But Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria?
who was at enmity with Flavian of Constantinople, obtained,
from Theodosius, that a third council should be held on this
affair : which accordingly met at Ephesus, which the ortho*
dox stigmatized by the name of the thieving council, or
Council of Thieves. Dioscorus was president of it, and,
after an examination of the affair of Eutyches, his sentence
of excommunication and deposition was taken off, and him-
self restored to his office and dignity : the bishops of Con-
(1) Evag. 1. l. c. 9, 10.
0 ?
116 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
stantinople, Antioch, and others, being deposed in his stead.
But the condemned bishops, and the legates from Rome,
appealed from this sentence to another council, and prevailed
with Theodosius to issue his letters for the assembling one:
but as he died before they could meet,1 the honour of deter^
mining this affair was reserved for his successor, Marcian ;
and when the fathers, in obedience to his summons, were
convened at Chalcedon, the emperor favoured them with his
presence ; and, in a speech to them, told them, u that he
had nothing more at heart than to preserve the true and
orthodox Christian faith, safe and uncorrupted, and that,
therefore, he proposed to them a law, that no one should
dare to dispute of the person of Christ, otherwise than as it
had been determined by the council of Nice." After this
address of the emperor, the fathers proceeded to their syno-
dical business, and, notwithstanding the synod was divided,
some of the fathers piously crying out, " Damn Dioscorus,
banish Dioscorus, banish the Egyptian, banish the heretic,
Christ hath deposed Dioscorus;" others, on the contrary,
" Restore Dioscorus to the council, restore Dioscorus to his
churches ;" yet, through the authority of the legates of
Rome, Dioscorus was deposed for his contempt of the sacred
canons, and for his contumacy towards the holy universal
synod. After this, they proceeded to settle the faith accord-
ing to the Nicene creed, the opinions of the fathers, and the
doctrine of Athanasius, Cyrill, Caelestine, Hilarius, Basil,
Gregory, and Leo ; and decreed, that " Christ was truly
God, and truly man, consubstantial to the Father as to his
deity, and consubstantial to us as to his humanity; and
that he was to be confessed as consisting of two natures
without mixture, conversion of one into the other, and with-
out division or separation ; and that it should not be lawful
for any person to utter, or write, or compose, or think, or
teach any other faith whatsoever;" and that if any should
presume to do it, they should, if bishops or clergymen, be
(l) Evag. 1. 2. c. 4, 18.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. i IT
deposed; and if monks or kicks, be anathematised, This
procured a loud acclamation : u God bless the enip-
God bless the empress. We believe as pope Leo doth.
Damn the dividers and the confounders. We believe as
Cyrill did : immortal be the name of Cyrill. Thus the
orthodox believe ; and cursed be every one" that doth not
believe so too." Marcian ratified their decrees,1 and ba>.
ed Dioscorus, and put forth an edict, containing very severe
penalties against the Eutychians and Apollinarists. By Ibis
law the emperor ordained, " that they should not have
power of disposing their estates, and making a will, nor of
inheriting what others should leave them by will. Neither
let them receive advantage by any deed of gilt, but let what-
soever is given them, either by the bounty of the living, or
the will of the dead, be immediately forfeited to our trea-
sury ; nor let them have the power, by any title or deed of
gift, to transfer any part of their own estates to others.
Neither shall it be lawful for them to have or ordain
bishops or presbyters, or any other of the clergy whatso-
ever ; as knowing that the Eutychians and Apollinarists,
who shall presume to confer the names of bishop or pres-
byter, or any other sacred oflice upon any one, as well as
those who shall dare to retain them, shall be condemned to
banishment, and the forfeiture of their goods. And as to
those who have been formerly ministers in the Catholic
church, or monks of the orthodox faith, and forsaking the
true and orthodox worship of the Almighty God, have or
shall embrace the heresies and abominable opinions of Apol-
linarius or Eutvches, let them be subject to all the penalties
ordained by this, or any foregoing laws whatsoever, against
heretics, and banished from the Roman dominions, accord-
ing as former laws have decreed against the Manicheans.
Farther, let not any of the Apollinarists, or Eutychians,
build churches or monasteries, or have assemblies and con-
venticles either by day or night ; nor let the followers of
(i) Evag. I a. c. 5.
118 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
this accursed sect meet in any one's house or tenement, or
in a monastery, nor in any other place whatsoever : but if
they do, and it shall appear to be with the consent of the
owners of such places, after a due examination, let such
place or tenement in which they meet be immediately
forfeited to us ; or if it be a monastery, let it be given to
the orthodox church of that city in whose territory it is.
But if so be they hold these unlawful assemblies and con-
venticles without the knowledge of the owner, but with
the privity of him who receives the rents of it, the tenant,
agent, or steward of the estate, let such tenant, agent, or
steward, or whoever shall receive them into any house or
tenement, or monastery, and suffer them to hold such unlaw-
ful assemblies and conventicles, if he be of low and mean
condition, be publicly bastinadoed as a punishment to him-
self, and as a warning to others ; but if they are persons of
repute, let them forfeit ten pounds of gold to our treasury.
Farther, let no Apollinarist or Eutychian ever hope for any
military preferment, except to be listed in the foot sol-
diers, or garrisons : but if any of them shall be found in any
other military service, let them be immediately broke, and
forbid all access to the palace, and not suffered to dwell in
any other city, town or country, but that wherein they were
born."
" But if any of them are born in this august city, let them
be banished from this most sacred society, and from every
metropolitan city of our provinces. Farther, let no Apol-
linarist or Eutychian have the power of calling assemblies,
public or private, or gathering together any companies, or
disputing in any heretical manner ; or of defending their
perverse and wicked opinions ; nor let it be lawful for any
one to speak or write, or publish any thing of their own, or
the writings of any others, contrary to the decrees of the
venerable synod of Chalcedon. Let no one have any such
books, nor dare to keep any of the impious performances
of such writers. And if any are found guilty of these crimes,
let them be condemned to perpetual banishment ; and, as
for those, who through a desire of learning shall hear others
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION 119
disputing of this wretched heresy, it is our pleasure that they
forfeit ten pounds of gold to our treasury, and let the teacher
of these unlawful tenets be punished with death. Let all
such books and papers as contain any of the damnable opi-
nions of Eutyches or Apollinarius be burnt, that all the
remains of their impious perverseness may perish with the
flames ; for it is but just that there should be a proportion-
able punishment to deter men from these most outrageous
impieties. And let all the governors of our province*, and
their deputies, and the magistrates of our cities, know,
that if, through neglect or presumption, they shall Buffer
any part of this most religious edict to be violated, they
shall be condemned to a fine of ten pounds of gold, to be
paid into our treasury ; and shall incur the farther penalty
of being declared infamous.'' For this law, pope Leo
returns him thanks,1 and exhorts him farther, that he would
reform the see of Alexandria, and not only depose the here-
tical clergy of Constantinople from their clerical orders, but
expel them from the city itself.
At the same time that they published these cruel laws,
the authors of them, as Mr. Limborcha well observes.
would willingly be thought to otter no violence to con-
science. Marcian himself, in a letter to the Archimandrites
of Jerusalem, says, Such is our clemency, that we u*(> no
force with any, to compel him to subscribe, or agree with us,
if he be unwilling ; for we would not by terrors and violence
drive men into the paths of truth. Who would nol wonder
at this hypocrisy, and at such attempts to cover over their
cruelties ? They forbid men to learn or teach, under the
severest penalties, doctrines which they who teach them
are fully persuaded of the truth of, and think themselves
obliged to propagate ; and yet the author of such penalties
would fain be thought to offer no violence to conscience.
But for what end are all these penalties against heretics
ordained ? For no other, unquestionably, but that men may
(l) August. Epht. :: ('J) Hist. Inqu. 1. 1. c. 4.
120 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
be deterred, by the fear of them, from openly professing
themselves, or teaching- others, principles they think them-
selves bound in conscience to believe and teach ; that being
at length quite tired out by these hardships, they may join
themselves to the established churches, and at least profess
to believe their opinions. But this is offering violence to
conscience, and persecution in the highest degree. But to
proceed :
Proterius1 was substituted by this council bishop of
Alexandria, in the room of Dioscorus ; and upon his taking
possession of his bishopric, the whole city was put into the
utmost confusion, being divided, some for Dioscorus, some
for Proterius. The mob assaulted with great violence
their magistrates,2 and being opposed by the soldiers, they
put them to flight by a shower of stones ; and as they be-
took themselves to one of the churches for sanctuary, the
mob besieged it, and burnt it to the ground, with the sol-
diers in it. The emperor sent two thousand other soldiers
to quell this disturbance, who increased the miseries of the
poor citizens, by offering the highest indignities to their
wives and daughters. And though they were for some
time kept in awe,3 yety upon Marcian's death, they broke out
into greater fury, ordained Timotheus bishop of the city,
and murdered Proterius, by running him through with a
sword. After this, they hung him by a rope, in a public
place, by way of derision, and then, after they had ignomi-
niously drawn him round the whole city, they burnt him to
ashes, and even fed on his very bowels in the fury of their
revenge. The orthodox charged these outrages upon the
Eutychians ; but Zacharias, the historian, mentioned by
Evagrius, says, Proterius himself was the cause of them, and
that he raised the greatest disturbances in the city : and,
indeed, the clergy of Alexandria, in their letter to Leo, the
emperor, concerning this affair, acknowledge, that Proterius
(1) Evag. 1. 2. c. 5. (3) Evag. 1. 2. c.
(2) Niceph. 1. 1 5. c. 8.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 121
had deposed Timotheus, with four or five bishops, and seve-
ral monks, for heresy, and obtained of the emperor their
actual banishment. Great disturbances happened also in
Palestine1 on the same account ; the monks who opposed
the council forcing Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, to quit his
see, and getting- one Theodosius ordained in his room. But
the emperor soon restored Juvenal, after whose arrival the
tumults and miseries of the city greatly increased, the dif-
ferent parties acting by one another just as their fury and
revenge inspired them.
Leo succeeded Marcian,* and sent circular letters to the
several bishops, to make inquiries concerning the affairs of
Alexandria, and the council of Chalcedon. Most of the
bishops adhered to the decrees of those fathers, and agreed
to depose Timotheus, who was sent to bear Dioscorus com-
pany in banishment.
Under Zeno, the son-in-law and successor of Leo, Hun-
nerick the Vandal grievously persecuted the orthodox in
Africa. In the beginning of his reign he made a very equi-
table proposal, that he would allow them the liberty of
choosing a bishop, and worshipping according to their own
way, provided the emperor would grant the Arians the same
liberty in Constantinople, and other places. This the ortho-
dox would not agree to, choosing rather to have their own
brethren persecuted, than to allow toleration to such as
differed from them. Hunnerick was greatly enraged by this
refusal, and exercised great severity towards all who would
not profess the Arian faith, being excited hereto by Cyrill,
one of his bishops, who was perpetually suggesting to him,
that the peace and safety of his kingdom could not be main-
tained, unless he extirpated all who differed from him as
public nuisances. This cruel ecclesiastical advice was
agreeable to the king's temper, who immediately put forth
the most severe edicts against those who held the doctrine
of the consubstantiality, and turned all those laws which
(1) Evag. 1. 2. c 5. (2) c, 9, 10.
122 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
had been made against the Arians, and other heretics,
against the orthodox themselves ; it being, as Hunnerick
observes in his edict, " an instance of virtue in a king, to
turn evil counsels against those who were the authors of
them." But though the persecution carried on by the
orthodox was no vindication of Hunnerick's cruelty towards
them, yet I think they ought to have observed the justice of
divine Providence, in suffering a wicked prince to turn all
those unrighteous laws upon themselves, which, when they
had power on their side, they had procured for the punish-
ment and destruction of others. A particular account of the
cruelties exercised by this prince may be read at large in
Victor de Vandal. Persec. 1. 3.
Zeno, though perfectly orthodox in his principles, yet
was a very wicked and profligate prince, and rendered him-
self so extremely hateful to his own family, by his vices and
debaucheries, that Basiliscus, brother of Verina, mother of
Zeno's empress, expelled him the empire, and reigned in
his stead ;z and having found by experience, that the decrees
of the council of Chalcedon had occasioned many disturb-
ances, he by an edict ordained, that the Nicene creed alone
should be used in all churches, as being the only rule of the
pure faith, and sufficient to remove every heresy, and per-
fectly to unite all the churches ; confirming at the same time
the decrees of the councils of Constantinople and Ephesus.
But as to those of the council of Chalcedon, he ordered,
that as they had destroyed the unity and good order of the
churches, and the peace of the whole world, they should be
anathematized by all the bishops ; and that wherever any
copies of those articles should be found they should be im-
mediately burnt. And that whosoever after this should
attempt, either by dispute or writing, or teaching, at any
time, manner or place, to utter, or so much as name the
novelties that had been agreed on at Chalcedon Contrary
to thVfaith, should, as the authors of tumults and seditions
1) Evag. 1. 3. c. 4.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 123
in the churches of God, and as enemies to God and himself,
be subject to all the penalties of the laws, and be deposed?
if bishops or clergymen ; and if monks or laicks, be punished
with banishment, and confiscation of their effects, and even
with death itself.1 Most of the eastern bishops subscribed
these letters of Basiliscus ; and being afterwards met in
council at Ephesus, they deposed Acacius, the orthodox
bishop of Constantinople, and many other bishops that
agreed with him. They also wrote to the emperor to
inform him, that " they had voluntarily subscribed his
letters," and to persuade him to adhere to them, or that
otherwise " the whole world would be subverted, if the
decrees of the synod of Chalcedon should be re-established,
which had already produced innumerable slaughters, and
occasioned the shedding of the blood of the orthodox
Christians." But Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, soon
forced Basiliscus to alter his measures, by raising up the
monks and mob of the city against him ; so that he recalled
his former letters, and ordered Nestorius and Eutyches,
with all their followers, to be anathematized, and soon after
he quitted the empire to Zeno.a Upon his restoration he
immediately rescinded the acts of Basiliscus, and expelled
those bishops from their sees, which had been ordained
during his abdication. In the mean time the Asiatic
bishops, who in their letter to Basiliscus had declared,
that the report of their " subscribing involuntarily, and by
force, was a slander and a lie ;" yet, upon this turn of
affairs, in order to excuse thernselves to Acacius, and to
ingratiate themselves with Zeno, affirm, " that they did
it not voluntarily, but by force, swearing that they had
always, and did now believe the faith of the synod of Chal-
cedon." Evagrius leaves it in doubt, whether Zacharias
deikmed them, or whether the bishops lied, when they
affirmed that they subscribed involuntarily, and against
their consciences.
1) Evag. 1. 3. c. 5. t$) 1. 3. c. 8, 9.
124
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Zeno* observing the disputes that had arisen through
the decrees of the last council, published his Henoticon, or
his " uniting and pacific edict,"* in which he confirmed the
Nicene, Constantinopolitan, and Ephesine councils, ordained
that the Nicene creed should be the standard of orthodoxy,
declared that neither himself nor the churches have, or had,
or would have any other symbol or doctrine but that, con-
demned Nestorius and Eutyches, and their followers ; and
ordered, that whosoever had, or did think otherwise, either
now or formerly, whether at Chalcedon or any other synod,
should be anathematized. The intention of the emperor by
this edict, was plainly to reconcile the friends and opposers
of the synod of Chalcedon ; for he condemned Nestorius
and Eutyches, as that council had done, but did not anathema-
tize those who would not receive their decrees, nor submit
to them as of equal authority with those of the three former
councils : but this compromise was far from having the
desired effect.
During these things several changes happened in the
bishopric of Alexandria.3 Timothy, bishop of that place,,
being dead, one Peter Mongus was elected by the bishops
suffragans of that see, which so enraged Zeno, that he
intended to have put him to death ; but changed it for
banishment, and Timothy, successor of Proterius, was sub-
stituted in his room. Upon Timothy's death, John, a pres-
byter of that church, obtained the bishopric by simony, and
in defiance of an oath he had taken to Zeno, that he would
never procure himself to be elected into that see. Upon this
he was expelled, and Mongus restored by the emperor's
order. Mongus immediately consented, and subscribed to
the pacific edict, and received into communion those who
had formerly been of a different party. Soon after this he
was accused by Calendio,4 bishop of Antioch, for adultery,
and for having publicly anathematized the synod of Chalce-
(1) Evag. c. 13. ^ (3) Evag. 1. 3. c, 11, 12,
(2) C. 14. (4) C, 16
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 125
don at Alexandria ; and though this latter charge was true,
jet he solemnly denied it in a letter to Acacius,1 bishop of Con-
stantinople, turning with the time, condemning and receiv-
ing it, just as it suited his views, and served his interest.
But being at last accused before Felix,* bishop of Rome, he
was pronounced an heretic, excommunicated, and anathe-
matized.
Anastasius,3 who succeeded Zeno, was himself a great
lover of peace, and endeavoured to promote it, both amongst
the clergy and laity, and therefore ordered, that there should
be no innovations in the church whatsoever. But this mo-
deration was by no means pleasing to the monks and bishops.
Some of them were great sticklers for.the council of Chal-
cedon, and would not allow so much as a syllable or a letter
of their decrees to be altered, nor communicate with those
who did not receive them. Others were so far from sub-
mitting to this synod, and their determinations, that they
anathematized it ; whilst others adhered to Zeno's Heno-
ticon, and maintained peace with one another, even though
they were of different judgments concerning the nature of
Christ. Hence the church was divided into factions, so that
the bishops would not communicate with each other. Not
only the eastern bishops separated from the western, but
those of the same provinces had schisms amongst themselves.
The emperor, to prevent as much as possible these quarrels,
banished those who were most remarkably troublesome from
their sees, and particularly the bishops of Constantinople
and Antioch, forbidding all persons to preach either for or
against the council of Chalcedon, in any places where it had
not been usual to do it before ; that by allowing all churches
their several customs, he might prevent any disturbances
upon account of innovations.4 But the monks and bishops
prevented all these attempts for peace, hy forcing one
another to make new confessions and subscriptions, and by
(1) Evag. c. 17. (3) Evag. 1. 3. c. 30.
(2) C. 20, 21, (4) 1. 3. C. 31, 22,
126 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
anathematizing all who differed from them as heretics ; scr
that by their seditious and obstinate behaviour they occa-
sioned innumerable quarrels and murders in the empire.
They also treated the emperor himself with great insolence,
and excommunicated him as an enemy to the synod of Chal-
cedon. Macedonius,1 bishop of Constantinople, and his
clergy raised the mob of that city against him, only for
adding to one of their hymns these words, " who was cruci-
fied for us." And when for this reason Macedonius was
expelled his bishopric, they urged on the people to such an
height of fury as endangered the utter destruction of the
city ; for in their rage they set fire to several places in it,
cut off the head of a monk, crying out, he was " an enemy of
the Trinity j" and were not to be appeased till the emperor
himself went amongst them without his imperial diadem, and
brought them to temper by proper submissions and persua-
sions.1 And though he had great reason to be offended
with the bishops for such usage, yet he was of so humane
and tender a disposition, that though he ordered several of
them to be deposed for various offences, yet apprehending
that it could not be effected without bloodshed, he wrote to
the prefect of Asia, " not to do any thing in the affair, if it
would occasion the shedding a single drop of blood."
Under this emperor, Symmachus,3 bishop of Rome, expel-
led the Manichees from the city, and ordered their books to
be publicly burnt before the doors of the church.
Justin4 was more zealous for orthodoxy than his prede-
cessor Anastasius, and in the first year of his reign gave a
very signal proof of it. Severus, bishop of Antioch, was warm
against the council of Chalcedon, and continually anathe-
matizing it in the letters he wrote to several bishops ; and
because the people quarrelled on this account, and divided
into several parties, Justin ordered the bishop to be appre-
hended, and his tongue to be cut out ; and commanded that
(1) Evag. 1. 3. c. 44. (3) Platin.
(2) c. 34. (4) Evag. 1. 3. c. 4, 9,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 127
the synod of Chalcedon should be preached up through all
the churches of the empire. Platina also tells us,1 that he
banished the Arians, and gave their churches to the ortho-
dox. Hormisda also, bishop of Home, in imitation of his
predecessor Symmachus, banished the remainder of the Ma-
nichees, and caused their writings to be burnt.
Justinian,* his successor in the* empire, succeeded him
also in his zeal for the council of Chalcedon, and banished
the bishops of Constantinople and A^ntioch, because they
would not obey his orders, and receive the decrees of that
synod. He also published a constitution, by which he ana-
thematized them and all their followers ; and ordered, that
whosoever should preach their opinions should be subject to
the most grievous punishments. By this means nothing was
openly preached in any of the churches bet this council ; nor
did any one dare to anathematize it. And whosoever were
of a contrary opinion, they were compelled by innumerable
methods to come into the orthodox faith. In the third year
of his reign3 he published a law, ordering that there should
be no pagans, nor heretics, but orthodox Christians only,
allowing to heretics three months only for their conversion.
By another he deprived heretics of the right of succession.4
By another he rendered them incapable of being witnesses
in any trial against Christians. He prohibited them also
from baptizing any persons, and from transcribing heretical
books, under the penalty of having the hand cut off. These
laws were principally owing to the persuasions of the bishops.
Thus Agapetus, bishop of Rome, who had condemned Anthi-
nius, and deposed him from his see of Constantinople, per-
suaded Justinian to banish all those whom he had con-
demned for heresy. Pelagius also desired,5 that heretics
and schismatics might be punished by the secular power, if
they would, not be converted. The emperor was too ready
(1) In vit. Johan. 1. Platiji, (4) Cod. de Haeret. Novel. 42. c. I.
(2) Evag. 1. S. c. 11. (5) Platin,
(3) Paul, Dificon. c. is.
128 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
to comply witli this advice. But notwithstanding all this
zeal for orthodoxy, and the cruel edicts published by him for
the extirpation of heresy, he was infamously covetous,1 sold
the provinces of the empire to plunderers and oppressors,
stripped the wealthy of their estates upon false accusations
and forged crimes, and went partners with common whores
in their gains of prostitution ; and what is worse, in the
estates of those whom those wretches falsely accused of
rapes and adulteries. And yet, that he might appear as
pious as he was orthodox, he built out of these rapines and
plunders many stately and magnificent churches ; many reli-
gious houses for monks and nuns, and hospitals for the relief
of the aged and infirm. Evagrius* also charges him with
more than bestial cruelty in the case of the Venetians, whom
he not only allowed, but even by rewards encouraged to
murder their enemies at noon-day, in the very heart of the
city, to break open houses, and plunder the possessors of
their riches, forcing them to redeem their lives at the ex-
pence of all they had. And if any of his officers punished
them for these violences, they were sure to be punished
themselves with infamy or death. And that each side might
taste of his severities, he afterwards turned his laws against
the Venetians, putting great numbers of them to death, for
those very murders and violences he had before encouraged
and supported.
(1) Evag.l. 4. c. SO. (2) c. 32.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 129
SECT. VII.
The second council at Constantinople ; or fifth general
council.
During his reign, in the 24th year of it, was held the
fifth general council at Constantinople, A. C. 553, consisting
of about 165 fathers. The occasion of their meeting was
the opposition that was made to the four former general
councils, and particularly the writings of Origen, which
Eustachius, bishop of Jerusalem, accused, as full of many
dangerous errors.1 In the first sessions it was debated,
whether " those who were dead were to be anathematized?"
One Entychius looked with contempt on the fathers for
their hesitation in so plain a matter, and told them, that
there needed no deliberation about it ; for that king Josias
formerly did not only destroy the idolatrous priests who
were living, but dug also those who had been dead long
before out of their graves. So clear a determination of the
point, who could resist ? The fathers immediately were con-
vinced, and Justinian caused him to be consecrated bishop
of Constantinople, in the room of Menas, just deceased, for
this his skill in scripture and casuistry. The consequence
was, that the decrees of the four preceding councils were all
confirmed ; those who were condemned by them re-con-
demned and anathematized, particularly Theodorus bishop
of Mopsuestia, and Ibas, -with their writings, as favouring
the impieties of Nestoriug ; and finally, Origen, with all his
detestable and execrable principles, and all persons whatso-
ever who should think, or speak of them, or dare to defend
them. After these transactions the synod sent an account of
them to Justinian,2 whom they complimented with the title
(l) Evag. 1. 4. c. 38. (2) 1. 4. C. 39.
* s
130 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
of " the most Christian king, and with having a soul par-
taker of the heavenly nobility." And yet soon after these
flatteries his most Christian majesty turned heretic himself,
and endeavoured with as much zeal to propagate heresy, as
he had done orthodoxy before ; he published an edict, by
which he ordained, that " the body of Christ was incor-
ruptible, and incapable even of natural and innocent pas-
sions ; that before his death he eat in the same manner as
he did after his resurrection, ' receiving no conversion or
change from his very formation in the womb, neither in his
voluntary or natural affections, nor after his resurrection."
But as he was endeavouring to force the bishops to receive
his creed, God was pleased, as Evagrius observes,1 to cut
him off ; and notwithstanding " the heavenly nobility of
his soul, he went," as the same author charitably supposes,3
" to the devil."
" Hunnerick,3 the Arian king of the Vandals, treated the
orthodox in this emperor's reign with great cruelty in
Africa, because they would not embrace the principles of
Arius ; some he burnt, and others he destroyed by different
kinds of death ; he ordered the tongues of several of them
to be cut out, who afterwards made their escape to Con-
stantinople ; where Procopius, if you will believe him,
affirms he heard them speak as distinctly as if their tongues
had remained in their heads. Justinian himself mentions
them in one of his constitutions. Two of them, however,
who happened to be whore -masters, lost afterwards the use
of their speech for this reason, and the honour and grace of
martyrdom.
Justin the younger,4 who succeeded Justinian, published
an edict soon after his advancement, by which he sent all
bishops to their respective sees, and to perform divine wor-
ship according to the usual manner of their churches, with-
out making any innovations concerning the faith. As to his
(1) Evag. 1. 4. c. 41. (3) Evag. 1. 4. c. 14.
(2) 1. 5. c. 1. (4) 1. 5. c. 1.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 131
personal character, lie was extremely dissolute and de-
bauched, and addicted to the most vile and criminal pleasures.
He was also sordidly covetous, and sold the very bishoprics
to the best bidders, putting them up to public auction. Nor
was he less remarkable for his cruelty ;x he had a near rela-
tion of his own name, whom he treacherously murdered ;
and of whom he was so jealous, that he could not be content
till he and his empress had trampled his head under their
feet.3 However, he was very orthodox, and published a new
explication of the faith, which for clearness and subtlety
exceeded all that went before it. In this he professes, that
" he believed in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the consub-
stantial Trinity, one deity, or nature, or essence, and one
virtue, power and energy, in three hypostases or persons ;
and that he adored the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in
Unity, having a most admirable division and union ; the
Unity according to the essence or deity; the Trinity accord-
ing to the properties, hypostases or persons ; for they are
divided indivisibly ; or, if I may so speak, they are joined
together separately. The godhead in the three is one, and
the three are one, the deity being in them ; or to speak
more accurately, which three are the deity. It is God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, when each
person is considered by itself, the mind thus separating
things inseparable; but the three are God, when considered
together, being one in operation and nature. We believe
also in one only begotten Son of God, God the Word — for
the holy Trinity received no addition of a fourth person,
even after the incarnation of God the Word, one of the holy
Trinity. But our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same,
consuDstantial to God, even the Father, according to his
deity, and con substantial to us according to his manhood ;
liable to suffering in the flesh, but impassible in the deity.
For we do not own that God the Word, who wrought the
(l) Evag. 1. 5. c. 2. (2) Evag. 1. 5. e. s,
132 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
miracles, was one, and he that suffered another ; but we
confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, was
one and the same, who was made flesh and became perfect
man ; and that the miracles and sufferings were of one and
the same : for it was not any man that gave himself for us,
but God the Word himself, being made man without change;
so that when we confess our Lord Jesus Christ to be one
and the same, compounded of each nature, of the godhead
and manhood, we do not introduce any confusion or mixture
by the union— for as God remains in the manhood, so also
nevertheless doth the man, being in the excellency of the
deity, Emanuel being both in one and the same, even one
God and also man. And when we confess him to be perfect
in the godhead, and perfect in the manhood, of which he is
compounded, we do not introduce a division in part, or
section to his one compounded person, but only signify the
difference of the natures, which is not taken away by the
union ; for the divine nature is not converted into the
human, nor the human nature changed into the divine. But
we say, that each being considered, or rather actually exist-
ing in the very definition or reason of its proper nature,
constitutes the oneness in person. Now this oneness as to
person signifies that God the Word, i. e. one person of the
three persons of the godhead, was not united to a pre-ex-
istent man, but that he formed to himself in the womb of
our holy Lady Mary, glorious mother of God, and ever a
virgin, and out of her, in his own person, flesh consubstan-
tiaf to us, and liable to all the same passions, without sin,
ar.imated with a reasonable and intellectual soul.— For con-
sidering his inexplicable oneness, we orthodoxly confess one
nature °of God the Word made flesh, and yet conceiving in
our minds the difference of the natures, we say they are
two, not introducing any manner of division. For each
nature is in him ; so that we confess him to be one and the
same Christ, one Son, one person, one hypostasis, God and
man together. Moreover, we anathematize all who have,
or do think otherwise, and judge them as cut off from the
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 133
holy Catholic, and apostolic church of God." To this
extraordinary edict, all, says the historian, gave their con-
sent, esteeming it to be very orthodox, though they were
not more united amongst themselves than before.
Under Mauritius,1 John bishop of Constantinople, in a
council held at that city, stiled himself oecumenical bishop,
by the consent of the fathers there assembled ; and the
emperor himself ordered Gregory to acknowledge him in
that character. Gregory absolutely refused it, and replied,
that the power of binding and loosing was delivered to
Peter and his successors, and not to the bishops of Constan-
tinople ; admonishing him to take care, that he did not pro-
voke the anger of God against himself, by raising tumults in
his church. This pope was the first who stiled himself,
Servus Servorum Dei,2 servant of the servants of God ; and
had such an abhorrence of the title of universal bishop, that
he said, " I confidently affirm, that whosoever calls himself
universal priest is the forerunner of Antichrist, by thus
proudly exalting himself above others."
But, however modest Gregory was in refusing and con-
demning this arrogant title, Boniface III.3 thought better of
the matter, and after great struggles, prevailed with Phocas,
who murdered Mauritius the emperor, to declare that the
see of the blessed apostle Peter, which is the head of all
churches, should be so called and accounted by all, and the
bishop of it oecumenical or universal bishop. The church
of Constantinople had claimed this precedence and dignity,
and was sometimes favoured herein by the emperors, who
declared, that the first see ought to be in that place which
was the head of the empire. The Roman pontiffs, on the
other hand, affirmed, that Rome, of which Constantinople
was but a colony, ought to be esteemed the head of the
em]: ire, because the Greeks themselves, in their writings,
stile the emperor Roman emperor, and the inhabitants of
(1) Platin in vit. Greg. I. (3) Platin in vit. Bonif. III.
(2) 1. 6. Epist. 194.
184 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Constantinople are called Romans, and not Greeks ; not to
mention that Peter, the prince of the apostles, gave the keys
of jthe kingdom of heaven to his successors, the popes of
Rome. On this foundation was the superiority of the
church of Rome to that of all other churches built ; and
Phocas, who was guilty of all villanies, was one of the fittest
persons that could be found to gratify Boniface in this re-
quest. Boniface, also, called a council at Rome, where this
supremacy was confirmed, and by whom it v/as decreed, that
bishops should be chosen by the clergy and people, approved
by the prince of the city, and ratified by the pope with these
words, " Volumus & jnbemus," for this is our will and com-
mand. To reward Phocas for the grant of the primacy, he
approved the murder of Mauritius, and very honourably
received his images, which he sent to Rome. And having
thus wickedly possessed themselves of this unrighteous
power, the popes as wickedly used it, soon brought almost
the whole Christian world into subjection to them, and be-
came the persecutors general of the church of God ; pro-
ceeding from one usurpation to another, till at last they
brought emperors, kings and princes into subjection, forcing
them to ratify their unrighteous decrees, and to punish, m
the severest manner, all that should presume to oppose and
contradict them, till she became " drunken with the blood of
the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations
of the earth."
The inquisition is the master-piece of their policy and
cruelty ; and such an invention for the suppression of reli-
gion and truth, liberty and knowledge, innocence and virtue,
as could proceed from no other wisdom but that which is
" earthly, sensual, and devilish." And as the history of it,
which I now present my reader with a faithful abstract of,
gives the most perfect account of the laws and practices of
this accursed tribunal, I shall not enter into the detail of
popish persecutions, especially as we have a full account of
those practised amongst ourselves in Fox and other writers,
who have done justice to this subject. I shall only add a
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 135
few things relating to the two other general councils, as they
are stiled by ecclesiastical historians. ^
Under Heraclius,1 the successor of Phocas, great distur-
bances were raised upon account of what they called the
heresy of the Monothelites, i. e. those who held there were
not two wills, the divine and human, in Christ, but only one
single will or operation. The emperor himself was of this
opinion, being persuaded into it by Pyrrhus patriarch of
Constantinople, and Cyrus bishop of Alexandria. And
though he afterwards seems to have changed his mind in
this point, yet in order to promote peace, he put forth an
edict, forbidding disputes or quarrels, on either side the
question. Constans, his grandson, was of the same senti-
ment, and at the instigation of Paul bishop of Constantino-
ple, grievously persecuted those who would not agree with
him. Marty n,2 pope of Rome, sent his legates to the em-
peror and patriarch to forsake their errors, and embrace the
truth ; but his holiness was but little regarded, and after
his legates were imprisoned and whipped, they were sent
into banishment. This greatly enraged Marty n, who
convened a synod at Rome of 150 bishops, who decreed,
that whosoever should " not confess two wills, and two ope-
rations united, the divine and the human, in one and the
same Christ, should be anathema,1' and that Paul bishop of
Constantinople should be condemned and deposed. The
emperor highly resented this conduct, and sent Olympius
hexarch into Italy to propagate the Monothelite doctrine ;
and either to kill Marty n, or send him prisoner to Constan-
tinople. Olympius not being able to execute either design,
Theodorus was sent in his room, who apprehended the pope,
put him in chains, and got him conveyed to the emperor,
who after ignominiously treating him, banished him to Pon-
tus, where he died in great misery and want. The bishops of
Constans's party ' were greatly assistant to him in this work
(1) Plat, in vit. Honorii I. (s) Act. 15, 6. Constant. Tom.
(2) Plat, in vit. Mart. Concil. 2.
136 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
cf persecution, and shewed more rage against their fellow*
Christians, than they did against the very barbarians them-
selves.
SECT. VIII.
The third council at Constantinople ; or sixth general
council.
Const Antine, the eldest son of Constans, cut off his
two younger brothers' noses, that they might not share the
empire with him ; but, however, happened to be more
orthodox than his predecessors ; and by the persuasion of
Agatho,1 pope of Rome, convened the sixth general council
at Constantinople, A. D. 680, in which were present 289
bishops. The fathers of this holy synod complimented the
emperor with being " another David, raised up by Christ,
their God, a man after his own heart ; who had not given
sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eye-lids, till he had
gathered them together, to find out the perfect rule of faith. "
After this they condemned the heresy of one will in Christ,
and declared, "that they glorified two natural wills and
operations, indivisibly, inconvertibly, without confusion,
and inseparably in the same Lord Jesus Christ, our true
God, i. e. the divine operation, and the human operation."
So that now the" orthodox faith, in reference to Christ, was
this ; that " he had two natures, the divine and human ;
that these two natures were united, without confusion, into
one single person ; and that in this one single person, there
were two distinct wills and operations, the human and
divine." Thus, at last, 680 years after Christ, was the
orthodox faith, relating to his deity, humanity, nature and
(l) Plat in vit. Agatb.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 137
wills, decided and settled by this synod ; who, after having
pronounced anathemas against the living and dead, ordered
the burning of heretical books, and deprived several bishops
of their sees ; procured an edict from the emperor, com-
manding all to receive their confession of faith, and denoun-
cing not only eternal, but corporal punishments to all
recusants ; viz. if they were bishops, or clergymen, or
monks, they were to be banished ; if laymen, of any rank
and figure, they were to forfeit their estates, and lose their
honours ; if of the common people, they were to be expelled
the royal city. These their definitive sentences were con-
cluded with the usual exclamation, of, u God save the
emperor, long live the orthodox emperor ; down with the
heretics ; cursed be Eutyches, Macarius, &c. The Trinity
hath deposed them."
The next controversy of importance was relating to the
worship of images. The respect due to the memories of the
apostles and martyrs of the Christian church, was gradually
carried into great superstition, and at length degenerated
into downright idolatry. Not only churches were dedicated
to them, but their images placed in them, and religious
adoration paid to them. Platina tells us, that amongst
many other ceremonies introduced by pope Sixtus III. in
the fifth century, he persuaded Valentinian the younger,
emperor of the West, to beautify and adorn the churches,
and to place upon the altar of St. Peter, a golden image of
our Saviour, enriched with jewels. In the next century the
images of the saints were brought in, and religious worship
paid to them. This appears from a letter cf pope Gregory's,
to the bishop of Marseilles, who broke in pieces certain
images, because they had been superstitiously adored.
Gregory tells him,1 " I commend you, that through a pious
al, you would not suffer that which is made with hands to
adored ; but I blame you for breaking the images in
eces : for it is one thing to adore a picture, and another
(1) 1. 9. Ind. 2. Ep. 2,
T
138 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
to learn by the history of the picture what is to be
adored." And elsewhere he declares,1 that " images and
pictures in churches, were very useful for the instruction of
the ignorant, who could not read." Sergius, after this,
repaired the images of the apostles. John VII. adorned a
great many churches with the pictures and images of the
saints. And at length, in the reign of Philippicus, Constan-
tine the pope, in a synod held at Rome, decreed, that images
should be fixed up in the churches, and have great adora*
tion paid them. He also condemned and excommunicated
the emperor himself for heresy ; because he erased the pic-
tures of the fathers, which had been painted on the walls of
the church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople ; and commanded
that his images should not be received into the church ; that
his name should not be used in any public or private writ-
ings, nor his effigies stamped upon any kind of money what-
soever.
This superstition of bringing images into churches was
warmly opposed, and gave occasion to many disturbances
and murders. The emperor Leo Isaurus greatly disap-
proved this practice, and published an edict, by which he
commanded all the subjects of the Roman empire to deface
all the pictures, and to take away all the statues of the
martyrs and angels out of the churches, in order to prevent
idolatry, threatening to punish those who did not, as public
enemies. Pope Gregory II. z opposed this edict, and ad-
monished all Catholics, in no manner to obey it. This
occasioned such a tumult at Ravenna in Italy, between the
partisans of the emperor and the pope, as ended in the
murder of Paul, exarch of Italy, and his son; which enraged
the emperor in an high degree ; so that he ordered all per-
sons to bring to him all their images of wood, brass, and
marble, which he publicly burnt ; punishing- with death all
such as were found to conceal them. He also convened a
synod at Constantinople; where, after a careful and full
(1) 1. 7. Ind. 2. Ep. 109. Platin. (2) Plat, in vit. Gregor. II.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 139
examination, it was unanimously agreed, that the interces-
sion of the saints was a mere fable ; and the worship of
images and relicts was downright idolatry, and contrary to
the word of God. And as Germanus, patriarch of Constan-
tinople, favoured images, the emperor banished him, and
substituted Anastasius, who was of his own sentiments, in
his room. Gregory III.1 in the beginning of his pontificate,
assembled his clergy, and by their unanimous consent,
deposed him on this account from the empire, and put him
under excommunication ; and was the first who withdrew
the Italians from their obedience to the emperors of Con-
stantinople, calling in the assistance of Charles king of
France. After this, he placed the images of Christ and his
apostles in a more sumptuous manner than they were before
upon the altar of St. Peter, and at his own expence made a
golden image of the Virgin Mary, holding Christ in her
arms, for the church of St. Mary ad Praesepe.
Constantine Copronymus, Leo's son and successor in the
empire, inherited his father's zeal against the worship of
images, and called a synod at Constantinople to determine
the controversy. The fathers being met together, to the
number of 330, after considering the doctrine of scripture,
and the opinions of the fathers, decreed, " that every image,
of whatsoever materials made and formed by the artist,
should be cast out of the Christian church as a strange and
abominable thing; adding an anathema upon all who should
make images or pictures, or representations of God, or of
Christ, or of the Virgin Mary, or of any of the saints, con-
demning it as a vain and diabolical invention ; deposing all
bishops, and subjecting the monks and laity, who should set
up any of them in public or private, to all the penalties of
the imperial constitutions." They also deposed Constan-
tine, patriarch of Constantinople, for opposing this decree;
and the emperor first banished him, and afterwards put him
to death ; and commanded, that this council should be
(l) Platin.
T 2
140 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
esteemed and received as the seventh oecumenical, or uni-
versal one. Paul I.1 pope of Rome, sent his legate to Con-
stantinople, to admonish the emperor to restore the sacred
images and statues which he had destroyed ; and threatened
him with excommunication upon his refusal. But Coprony-
mus slighted the message, and treated the legates with great
contempt, and used the image worshippers with a great deal
of severity.
Constantine, bishop of Rome, the successor of Paul,
seems also to have been an enemy to images, and was there
tumultuously deposed ; and Stephen III.* substituted in his
room, who was a warm and furious defender of them. He
immediately assembled a council in the Lateran church,
where the holy fathers abrogated all Constantine's decrees ;
deposed all who had been ordained by him bishops ; made
void all his baptisms and chrisms ; and, as some historians
relate, after having beat him, and used him with great indig-
nity, made a fire in the church, and burnt him therein.
After this, they annulled all the decrees of the synod of
Constantinople, ordered the restoration of statues and
images, and anathematized that execrable and pernicious
synod, giving this excellent reason for the use of images ;
c' that if it Was lawful for emperors, and those who had de-
served well of the commonwealth, to have their images
erected, but not lawful to set up those of God, the condi-
tion of the immortal God would be worse than that of men."
After this the pope published the acts of the council, and
pronounced an anathema against all those who should op-
pose it.
(l) Platin* in vit. Paul. I. (2) Id. in vit. Stephani.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 141
SECT. IX.
The second Nkene council ; or seventh general council.
Thus the mystery of this iniquity worked, till at length,
under the reign of Irene and Constantine her son, a synod
was packed up of such bishops as were ready to make any
decrees that should be agreeable to the Roman pontiff, and
the empress. They met at Nice, An. 787, to the number of
about 350. In this venerable assembly it was decreed,
u that holy images of the cross should be consecrated, and
put on the sacred vessels and vestments, and upon walls and
boards, in private houses and public ways ; and especially
that there should be erected images of the Lord our God,
our Saviour Jesus Christ, of our blessed Lady, the mother
of God, of the venerable angels, and of all the saints. And
that whosoever should presume to think or teach otherwise,
or to throw away any painted books, or the figure of the
cross, or any image or picture, or any genuine relicts of the
martyrs, they should, if bishops or clergymen, be deposed ;
or if monks or laymen, be excommunicated." Then they
pronounced anathemas upon all who should not receive
images, or who should call them idols, or who should wil-
fully communicate with those who rejected and despised
them ; adding, according to custom, " Long live Constantine
and Irene his mother. Damnation to all heretics. Damna-
tion on the council that roared against venerable images :
the holy Trinity hath deposed them."
Irene and Constantine approved and subscribed these
decrees, and the consequence was, that idols and images
were erected in all the churches ; and those who were
against them, treated with great severity. This council was
held under the popedom of Hadrian I. and thus, by the
intrigues of the popes of Rome, iniquity was established by
a law, and the worship of idols authorized and established
142 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
in the Christian church, though contrary to all the principles
of natural religion, and the nature and design of the Chris-
tian revelation.
It is true, that this decision of the council did not put an
entire end to the controversy. Platina tells us,r that Con-
stantino himself, not long after, annulled their decrees, and
removed his mother from all share in the government. The
synod also of Francfort, held about six years after, decreed
that the worship and adoration of images was impious ; con-
demned the synod of Nice, which had established it, and
ordered that it should not be called either the seventh, or
an universal council. But as the Roman pontiffs had en-
grossed almost all power into their own hands, all opposition
to image worship became ineffectual ; especially as they
supportedtheir decrees by the civil power, and caused great
cruelties to be exercised towards all those who should dare
dispute or contradict them.
For many years the world groaned under this antichris-
tian yoke ; nor were any methods of fraud, imposture and
barbarity, left unpractised to support and perpetuate it. As
the clergy rid lords of the universe, they grew wanton and
insolent in their power ; and as they drained the nations of
their wealth to support their own grandeur and luxury, they
degenerated into the worst and vilest set of men that ever
burdened the earth. They were shamefully ignorant, and
scandalously vicious ; well versed in the most exquisite arts
of torture and cruelty, and absolutely divested of all bowels
of mercy and compassion towards those, who even in the
smallest matters differed from the dictates of their supersti-
tion and impiety. The infamous practices of that accursed
tribunal, the inquisition, the wars against heretics in the
earldom of Tholouse, the massacres of Paris and Ireland,
the many sacrifices they have made in Great Britain, the
fires they have kindled, and the flames they have lighted up
in all nations, where their power hath been acknowledged,
(l) In vit. Hadrian I.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 143
witness against them, and demonstrate them to be very
monsters of mankind. So that oile would really wonder,
that the whole world hath not entered into a combination,
and risen in arms against so execrable a set of men, and
extirpated them as savage beasts, from the face of the
whole earth ; who, out of a pretence of religion, have de-
filed it with the blood of innumerable saints and martyrs,
and made use of the name of the most holy Jesus, to coun-
tenance and sanctify the most abominable impieties.
But as the inquisition is their master piece of hellish
policy and cruelty, I shall give a more particular account of
it in the following book.
144 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
BOOK III.
OF PERSECUTIONS UNDER THE PAPACY, AND PARTI*
CULARLY OF THE INQUISITION.
X* or several ages the method of proceeding against here-
tics was committed to the bishops, with whom the govern-
ment and care of the churches were entrusted, according to
the received decrees of the church of Rome. But as their
number did not seem sufficient to the court, or because they
did not proceed with that fury against heretics, as the pope
would have them ; therefore, that he might put a stop to
the increasing progress of heresy, and effectually extinguish
it, about the year of our Lord 1200, he founded the order of
the Dominicans and Franciscans. *Dominick and his fol-
lowers were sent into the country of Tholouse, where he
preached with great vehemence against the heretics of those
parts ; from whence his order have obtained the name of
Predicants. Father Francis, with his disciples, battled it
with the heretics of Italy. They were both commanded by
the pope to excite the Catholic princes and people to extir-
pate heretics, and in all places to inquire out their number
and quality ; and also the zeal of the Catholics and bishops
in their extirpation, and to transmit a faithful account to
Rome : hence they are called inquisitors.
Dominick being sent into the country of Tholouse, was
confirmed in the office of inquisitor by the papal authority :
after which, upon a certain day, in the midst of a great coi
course of people, he declared openly in his sermon, in t!
church of St. Prullian, " that he was raised to a new office b
* See note [Z] at the end of the volume.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 145
the pope ;" adding, that " he was resolved to defend, with
his utmost vigour, the doctrines of the faith ; and that if the
spiritual arm was not sufficient for this end, it was his fixed
purpose to call in the assistance of the secular one, and to
excite and compel the Catholic princes to take arms against
heretics, that the very memory of them might be intirely
destroyed." It evidently appears that he was a very bloody
and cruel man. He was born in Spain, in the village of
Calaroga, in the diocese of Osma. His mother, before she
conceived him, dreamt that u she was with child of a whelp,
carrying in his mouth a lighted torch ; and that after he was
born, he put the world in an uproar by his fierce barkings,
and set it on fire by the torch which he carried in his
mouth." His followers interpret this dream of his doctrine,
by which he enlightened the whole world ; but others, with
more reason, think that the torch was an emblem of that fire
and faggot, by which an infinite number of persons were
'consumed to ashes.
SECT. I.
Of the progress of the Inquisition.
Dominigk being settled in the country of Tholouse, sent
a great number of persons, wearing crosses, to destroy the
Albigenses in those parts ; and caused the friars of his order
to promise plenary indulgences to all who would engage in
the pious work of murdering heretics. He also caused
Raymond earl of Tholouse to be excommunicated, as a
defender of heretics, and his subjects to be absolved from
their oaths of allegiance. The cross -bearers, being thus
sent by Dominick, filled all places with slaughter and blood,
and burnt many whom they had taken prisoners. In the
year 1209, Biterre was taken by them ; and the inhabitants,
t;
146 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
without any regard of age, were cruelly put to the sword,
and the city itself destroyed by the flames ; and though there
were several Catholics in it, yet, lest any heretics should
escape, Arnold, abbot of Cisteaux, cried out, " Slay them all,
for the Lord knows who are his ;" upon which they were all
slain, without exception. Carcassone also was destroyed,
Alby and La Vaur taken by force; in which last place they
hanged Aymeric, the governor of the city, who was of a noble
family, beheaded eighty of lower degree, and threw Girarda,
Aymeric's sister, into an open pit, and covered her with
stones. Afterwards they conquered Carcum, where they
murdered sixty men. They seized on Villeneuve, a large
city near Tholouse, and burnt in it 400 Albigenses, and
hanged fifty more. They also took Castres de Termis, and
in it Raymond, lord of the place, whom they put in jail,
where he died; and burnt in one large fire, his wife, sister,
and virgin daughter, because they would not embrace the
faith of the church of Rome. They also took Avignon by
treachery, and, in despite of their oaths, plundered the city,
and killed great numbers of the inhabitants; and, at last,
forced the brave earl to surrender Tholouse itself, and then
stripped him of his dominions, and would not absolve him
from his excommunication, without walking in penance to
the high altar, in his shirt and breeches, and with naked feet.
Upon this conquest and destruction of the Albigenses, the
inquisition proceeded with vigour, and was established by
several councils at Tholouse and Narbonne.
In the year 1232, the inquisition was brought into Ara-
o*on, ana* pope Gregory gave commission to the archbishop
of Tarracone, and his suffragans, to proceed against all
persons infected with heretical pravity ; and accordingly
the inquisition was there carried on with the greatest rigour.
In 1251, pope Innocent IY. created inquisitors in Italy ;
and the office was committed to the Friars Minors and Pre-
dicants. The Friars Minors were appointed in the city of
Rome, the patrimony of St. Peter, Tuscany, the dutchy of
Spoletto, Campania, Maretamo, and Romania. To the Pre-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 147
dicants lie assigned Lombardy, Romaniola, the Marquisate
of Tarvesano, and Genoa ; and gave them certain articles
to be prescribed to the magistrates and people subject to
their jurisdiction, with power to excommunicate all who re-
fused to observe them ; and in process of time tribunals of
the inquisition were erected in Germany, Austria, Hungary,
Bohemia, Poland, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Ragusia, and in all
places where the power of the pope could extend itself. In-
numerable cruelties were practised upon those whom the
judges condemned for heresy ; some were burnt alive, others
thrown into rivers, tied hand and foot, and so drowned : and
others destroyed by different methods of barbarity.
Ferdinand and Isabella having united the several king-
doms of Spain by their inter-marriage, introduced, in the
year 1478, the inquisition into all their kingdoms, with
greater pomp, magnificence and power, than it had ever yet
appeared in. The Jews were the first who felt the fury of
it. A set time was appointed by the inquisitors for them to
come in and make confession of their errors, in the year
1481. Accordingly about 1700 of both sexes appeared, who
had their lives granted them. Many, however, refused to
obey, and persisted in their heresy. On this they were
immediately seized ; and through the violence of their
torments great numbers confessed their crimes, and were
thrown into the fire; some acknowledging Christ, and others
calling on the name of Moses. Within a few years, two
thousand of them of both sexes were burnt. Others pro-
fessing repentance, were condemned to perpetual imprison-
ment, and to wear crosses. The bones of others who were
dead were taken out of their graves, and burnt to ashes ;
their effects confiscated, and their children deprived of their
honours and offices. The Jews being terrified by this
cruelty, fled, some into Portugal, others into Italy, and
France ; and left all their effects behind them, which were
immediately seized on for the king's use. At length, in
1494, to purge their kingdoms intirely from Jewish super-
stition, Ferdinand and Isabel by a law ordered them to
u 2
148 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
depart all their dominions within four years ; forbidding1
them ever to return to Spain, under the punishment of
immediate death. Most writers affirm that there were
170,000 families who departed ; others say there were 800,000
persons ; a prodigious number, almost exceeding belief.
In the year 1500, the archbishop of Toledo took great
pains to convert the Moors of Granada to Christianity. He
first of all gained over some of their chief priests by gifts
and favours. Others, who refused to become Christians, he
put in irons in jail, and ordered them to be used with great
cruelty ; and by these methods gained many converts.
Ferdinand at last published an edict against them, com-
manding them in general to become Christians, or depart
his dominions within a certain day.
This tribunal, first erected to discover Jews and Moors,
soon began to proceed against heretics, and to exercise the
same cruelties against these as they had against the others.
Charles V. king of Spain, who with great difficulty had
brought the inquisition into the Netherlands, against the
Lutherans and reformed, recommended it to his son Philip
in his will ; and Philip gave full proof of his zeal to execute
his father's commands. For when he was requested by
many to grant liberty of religion in the Low Countries, he
prostrated himself before a crucifix, and uttered these words :
" I beseech the divine majesty, that I may always continue
in this mind ; that I may never suffer myself to be, or to be
called the lord of those any where, who deny thee the
Lord." Nor is this any wonder; for the popish divines
endeavoured to persuade the kings of Spain that the inqui-
sition was the only security of their kingdom. No one can
wonder, that under this persuasion, the Spanish kings have
been violent promoters of the inquisition ; and that they
have inflicted the most cruel punishments upon the mise-
rable heretics. Philip II. not only in the Low Countries,
but also in Spain, shewed himself the patron of it ; and that
the most outrageous cruelty was acceptable to him. He
gave some horrid specimens of it in the year 1559, in two
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 149
cities of Spain, when he came thither from the Low Coun-
tries ; " Immediately on his arrival," as Thuanus relates,
w he began to chastise the sectaries. And whereas, before this,
one or more, just as it happened, were delivered to the
executioner, after condemnation for heresj^ ; all that were
condemned throughout the whole kingdom were kept against
his coming, and carried together to Seville, and Valladolid,
where they were brought forth in public pomp to their
punishment. The first act of faith was at Seville, the 8th
of the calends of October ; in which John Ponce de Leon,
son of Rhoderic Ponce Comte de Baylen, was led before the
others, as in triumph, and burnt for an obstinate heretical
Lutheran. John Consalvus, a preacher, as he had been his
companion in life, was forced to bear him company in his
death ; after whom followed Isabella Venia, Maria Viroes,
Cornelia, and Bohorches; a spectacle full of pity and indig-
nation, which wasencreased, because Bohorches, the youngest
of all of them, being scarce twenty, suffered death with the
greatest constancy. And because the heretical assemblies
had prayed in the house of Venia, it was concluded in her
sentence, and ordered to be levelled with the ground. After
these, came forth Ferdinand San Juan, and Julian Hernan-
dez, commonly called the Little, from his small stature, and
John of Leon, who had been a shoemaker at Mexico in New
Spain, and was afterwards admitted into the college of St.
Isidore; in which his companions studied, as they boasted,
the purer doctrine privately. Their number was encreased
by Frances Chaves, a nun of the convent of St. Elizabeth,
who had been instructed by John iEgidius, a preacher at
Seville, and suffered death with great constancy. From the
same school, came out Christopher Losada, a physician, and
Christopher de Arellanio, a monk of St. Isidore, and Garsias
Arias ; who first kindled those sparks of the same religion
amongst the friars of St. Isidore, by his constant admonitions
and sermons, by which the great pile was afterwards set on
(l) Vol. L lib. 23. Ed. Buck,
150 TOE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
fire, and the convent itself, and good part of that most opu-
lent city almost consumed. He was a man of uncommon
learning, but of an inconstant, wavering temper ; and, being
exceeding subtle in disputing, he refuted the very doctrines
he had persuaded his followers to receive, though he brought
them into danger on that account from the inquisitors.
Having, by these arts, exposed many whom he had deceived k
to evident hazard, and rendered himself guilty of the detest-
able crime of breach of faith ; he was admonished by John
/Egidius, Constantine Ponce, and Varquius, that he had not
dealt sincerely with his friends, and those who were in the
same sentiments with himself; to which he replied, that he
foresaw, that in a little time they would be forced to behold
the bulls brought forth for a lofty spectacle ; meaning thereby,
the theatre of the inquisitors. Constantine answered, You,
if it please God, shall not behold the games from on high,
but be yourself amongst the combatants. Nor was Constan-
tine deceived in his prediction : for afterwards, Arias was
called on ; and whether age had made him bolder, or whether,
by a sudden alteration, his timorousness changed into courage,
he severely rebuked the assessors of the inquisitory tribunal;
affirming, they were more fit for the vile office of mule
keepers, than impudently to take upon themselves to judge
concerning the faith, which they were scandalously ignorant
of. He farther declared, that he bitterly repented that he
had knowingly and willingly opposed, in their presence,
that truth he now maintained, against the pious defenders
of it; and that from his soul he should repent of it whilst
he lived. So at last, being led in triumph, he was burnt
alive, and confirmed Constantine's prophecy. There re-
mained iEgidius and Constantine, who closed the scene;
but death prevented their being alive at the shew. ^Egidius
having been designed by the emperor, Philip's father, for
bishop of Tortona, upon the fame of his'piety and learning,
being summoned, publicly recanted his errors, wrought on
either by craft, or the persuasion of Sotus, a Dominican;
and hereupon was suspended for a while from preaching,
and the sacred office, and died some time before this act.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 151
The inquisitors thought he had been too gently dealt with,
and therefore proceeded against his body, and condemned
him dead to death, and placed his effigies in straw on high
for a spectacle. Constantine, who had been a long while
the emperor's confessor, and had always accompanied him in
his retirement, after his abdication from his empire and
kingdoms, and was present with him at his death, was
brought before this tribunal, and died a little before the act,
in a nasty prison. But, that the theatre might not want
him, his effigies was carried about in a preaching posture.
And thus this shew, terrible in itself, which drew tears from
most who were present, when these images were brought on
the scene, excited laughter in many, and at length indigna-
tion. They proceeded with the same severity, the following
October, at Valladolid, against others condemned for the
same crime ; where king Philip himself being present,
twenty -eight of the chief nobility of the country were tied
to stakes and burnt." Bartholomew Caranza, archbishop
of Toledo, was also accused ; who for his learning, probity
of life, and most holy conversation, was highly worthy of
that dignity. He was cast into prison, and stripped of all his
large revenues. His cause was brought before Pius V. at
Rome, and Gregory XIII. pronounced sentence in it.
Philip, not content to exercise his cruelty by land,
established the inquisition also in the ships. For in the
year 1571, a large fleet was drawn together under the com-
mand of John of Austria, and manned with soldiers listed
out of various nations. King Philip, to prevent any corrup-
tion of the faith, by such a mixture of various nations and
religions, after having consulted pope Pius V. deputed one
of the inquisitors of Spain, fixed on by the inquisitor general, ,
to discharge the office of inquisitor ; giving him power to
preside in all tribunals, and to celebrate acts of faith, in all
places and cities they sailed to. This erection of the inqui-
sition by sea, Pius V. confirmed by a bull sent to the general
inquisitor of Spain, beginning, " Our late most dear son
in Christ." Jerome Manrique exercised the jurisdiction
*
152 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
granted him, and held a public act of faith in the city of
Messina, in which many underwent divers punishments.
He also established it beyond Europe, not only in the
Canary islands, but in the new world of America; constitut-
ing two tribunals of it, one in the city of Lima, in the pro-
vince of Peru ; the other in the province and city of Mexico.
The inquisition at Mexico was erected in the year 1571,
and in a short space gave large proofs of its cruelty. Para-
mus relates, that in the year 1574, the third after its
erection, the first act of faith was celebrated with a new and
admirable pomp, in the Marquisses, market-place, where
they built a large theatre, which covered almost the whole
area of the market-place, and was close to the great church ;
where were present the viceroy, the senate, the chapter, and
the religious. The viceroy, the senate, and a vast number
of others, went with a large guard, in solemn procession, to
the market-place, where were about eighty penitents ; and
the act lasted from six in the morning to five in the evening.
Two heretics, one an Englishman, the other a Frenchman,
were released. Some for judaizing, some for polygamy, and
others for sorceries, were reconciled. The solemnity of this
act was such, that they who had seen that stately one at
Valiadolid, held in the year 1559, declared, that this was
nothing inferior to it in majesty, excepting only that they
wanted those royal personages here, which were present
there. From this time they celebrated yearly solemn acts
of the faith, where they brought Portuguese Jews, persons
guilty of incestuous and wicked marriages, and many con-
victed of sorcery and witchcraft.
The method of the tribunal of the inquisition, as now in
use in Spain, is this. The king proposes to the pope the
supreme inquisitor of all his kingdoms, whom the pope con-
firms in his office. The inquisitor thus confirmed by the
pope, is head and chief of the inquisition in the whole king-
dom, and hath given him by his holiness full power in all
eases relating to heresy. It belongs to his office to name
particular inquisitors, in every place where there is any tri-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 15e3
bunal of the inquisition, who nevertheless cannot act unless
approved by the king ; to send visitors to the provinces of
the inquisitors, to grant dispensations to penitents and their
children, and to deliberate concerning other very weighty
affairs. In the royal city the king appoints the supreme
council of the inquisition, over which the supreme inquisitor
of the kingdom presides. He hath joined with him five
counsellors, who have the title of apostolical inquisitors,
who are chosen by the inquisitor general upon the king's
nomination. One of these must always be a Dominican,
The supreme authority is in this council of the inquisition.
They deliberate upon all affairs with the inquisitor general,
determine the greater causes, make new laws according to
the exigency of affairs, determine differences amongst parti-
cular inquisitors, punish the offences of the servants, receive
appeals from inferior tribunals, and from them there is no
appeal but to the king. In other tribunals there are two or
three inquisitors : they have particular places assigned them,
Toledo, Cuenca, Valladolid, Calahorre, Seville, Cordoue,
Granada, Ellerena ; and in the Aragons, Valencia, Sara-
gossa, and Barcelona.
These are called provincial inquisitors. They cannot
imprison any priest, knight, or nobleman, nor hold any
public acts of faith, without consulting the supreme council
of the inquisition. Sometimes this supreme council deputes
one of their own counsellors to them, in order to give the
greater solemnity to the acts of faith.
These provincial inquisitors give all of them an account
of their provincial tribunal once every year to the supreme
council ; and especially of the causes that have been deter-
mined within that year, and of the state and number of their
prisoners in actual custody. They give also every month
an account of all monies which they have received, either
from the revenues of the holy office, or pecuniary punish-
ments and fines.
This council meets every day, except holy-days, in the
palace-royal, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in
154 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
the morning ; and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
after vespers ; in these three last days two counsellors of
the supreme council of Castile meet with them, who are
also counsellors of the supreme council of the inquisition.
This tribunal is now arisen to such an height in Spain,
that the king of Castile, before his coronation, subjects him-
self and all his dominions, by a special oath, to the most
holy tribunal of this most severe inquisition.
In the year 1557, John III. king of Portugal, erected the
tribunal of the inquisition in his kingdom, after the model
of that in Spain. It was chiefly levelled against the Jews,
who groan under the cruel yoke of it to this day, without
any mitigation of their punishment, being liable to all the
penalties ordained against heretics. And because the Jewish
wickedness spread every day more and more in the parts of
the East Indies, subject to the kingdom of Portugal, Cardi-
nal Henry, inquisitor general in the kingdom of Portugal,
erected, anno 1560, the tribunal of the inquisition in the
city of Goa, the metropolis of that province ; where it is
carried on at this time with great magnificence and so-
lemnity.
And that the inquisition might proceed every where
without any impediment, pope Paul III. anno 1542, de-
puted six cardinals to be inquisitors general of heretical
pravity, in all Christian nations whatsoever ; and gave them
authority to proceed without the bishops against all here-
tics, and persons suspected of heresy, and their accomplices
and abettors, of whatsoever state, degree, order, condition
and pre-eminence ; and to punish them, and confiscate their
goods ; to degrade, and deliver over to the secular court
the secular and regular clergy in holy orders ; and to do
every thing else that should be necessary in this affair.
Pius IV. enlarged their power ; and in 1564, gave them
authority to proceed against all manner of persons, whether
bishops, archbishops, patriarchs or cardinals, who were
heretics, or suspected of heresy. At length Sixtus V.
anno 1588? appointed fifteen congregations of the cardi-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 155
nals, and assigned to each of them their proper business.
To these were added a commissary, and an assessor
general. Whatever the majority of these cardinals agree,
is looked on as the decree of the whole congregation. They
meet twice a week ; on Wednesdays in St. Mary's church,
supra Minervam ; and on Thursdays in the pope's presence.
In this congregation his holiness decides or confirms the
votes of the counsellors and cardinals, and makes a prayer
when the congregation comes in.
SECT. II.
Of the Officers belonging to the Inquisition.
These are the inquisitors ; the judge of the forfeited
effects, the executor, the notaries, the jail-keeper, the mes-
senger, the door-keeper, the physician, the assessors, the
counsellors, the familiars, the promoter fiscal, the receiver
of the forfeited effects, and the visitors of the inquisitors.
The inquisitors are persons delegated by the pope to en-
quire concerning all heresies, and to judge and punish here-
tics. Generally speaking, no one can be deputed to this
office who is not forty years old. But if aperson is remarkable
for knowledge and prudence, he may, in Spain and Portugal,
be created inquisitor sooner. This office is accounted of so
great dignity in the church of Rome, , that the title of " most
reverend" is given to the inquisitors as well as the bishops.
Their privileges are many and great. They can excom-
municate, suspend, and interdict. None excommunicated
by them can be absolved, without command of the pope, ex-
cept in the article of death. They may apprehend heretics,
though they take sanctuary in churches ; and make statutes,
and encrease the punishments against them. They can grant
indigencies of twenty or forty days, and give full pardon of
156 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
sins to all their officers who died in their service ; and have
themselves granted a plenary indulgence in life and death.
Whosoever shall damage the effects of the inquisitor, or his
officer, or shall kill, strike or beat any one of them, is to be
immediately delivered over to the secular court. They are
freed from serving of all offices. They are to have lodgings,
provisions, and other necessaries provided for them. They
may proceed against all persons whatsoever, few excepted ;
against bishops, priests, and friars; and alllaicks whatsoever,
even princes and kings. They may cite persons of any sex
or condition for witnesses; a famous instance of which there
is in Joan, daughter of the emperer Charles V. whom they
cited before their tribunal to interrogate her concerning a
certain person, in some matters relating to the faith. The
emperor himself had such an awe of them, that he com-
manded his daughter without delay to make her deposition,
to avoid the sentence of excommunication. Upon which,
she actually appeared before the archbishop of Seville, in-
quisitor general, and gave in her evidence. In Spain also
the inquisitors pretend to have a jurisdiction over the sub-
jects of other kings. Of this, we have an instance in Thomas
Maynard, consul of the English nation at Lisbon, who was
thrown into the prison of the inquisition, under pretence
that he had said or done something against the Roman re-
ligion. M. Meadows, who was then resident, and took care of
the English affairs at Lisbon, advised Cromwell of the affair;
and, after having received an express from him, went to the
king of Portugal, and in the name of Cromwell demanded the
liberty of consul Maynard. The king told him, it was not
in his power; that the consul was detained by the inquisition,
over which he had no authority. The resident sent this
answer to Cromwell ; and having soon after received new in-
structions from him, had again audience of the king, and
told him, that since his majesty had declared he had no
power over the inquisition, he was commanded by Cromwell
immediately to declare war against it. This unexpected
declaration so terrified the king and the inquisition, that they
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 157
immediately determined to free the consul from prison ; and
immediately opened the prison doors, and gave him leave to
go out. The consul refused to accept a private dismission;
but in order to repair the honour of his character, demanded
to be honourably brought forth by the inquisition. The same
Maynard continued many years after under the same cha-
racter, in the reigns of Charles and James II. and lived at
Lisbon till he was about eighty years old, without any mo-
lestation from the inquisition. This story was well known
to all foreign merchants, who lived at that time, and many
years after, at Lisbon.
The inquisitors may also compel the governors of cities to
swear that they will defend the church against heretics ; and
to extirpate with ail their power, from their governments.,
all who are noted for heretics by the church. They may
also command all secular magistrates to seize and keep in
custody all heretics, and to carry them wheresoever they
order. And for the better apprehending of heretics, the
inquisitors may go with an armed attendance, and bear
arms themselves. They may compel witnesses to give evi-
dence by fines, pledges, excommunication, or torture. They
have also power to excommunicate all lay persons disputing
about the faith, publicly or privately ; and those who do
not discover heretics, by themselves or other persons. And
finally, they may condemn and prohibit all heretical books,
and suspected of heresy, or containing propositions errone-
ous, or differing from the Catholic faith.
If the inquisitors are negligent or remiss in their office,
they are prohibited from entering the church for four years ;
or if they offend by unjustly extorting money, they are pu-
nished by the prelates of their order ; but in such a manner,
however, as not to lessen men's opinion of the dignity and
authority of the holy office. From this precaution it is,
however, very plain, that the tribunal of the inquisition is not
so very holy and blameless, as they would have them believe
in Spain and Portugal; but that the inquisitors punish inno-
cent men sometimes very unjustly, throwing them into
158 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
prison, and treating them in a very barbarous and unworthy
manner. Of this we have a fresh instance in the inquisition
at Goa, in relation to father Ephraim, a Capucine; whom,
out of mere hatred and revenge, they seized by craft and
subtlety, and carried away to Goa, and there shut him up in
the prison of the inquisition. The story is this: Father
Ephraim having had an invitation from some English mer-
chants, built a church in the city of Madrespatan, which was
near to the city of St. Thomas. To this place, several of the
Portuguese came from St. Thomas's, to have the benefit of
Ephraim's instruction. By this, he incurred the hatred of
the Portuguese ; and, upon some disturbance that was raised,
father Ephraim was called to St. Thomas to appease it;
where he was seized by the officers of the inquisition, and
carried to Goa, bound hands and feet, and at night coming
from on board the ship, hurried into the prison of the inqui-
sition. All men wondered that this Capucine should be
brought prisoner before the tribunal of the inquisition as an
heretic, who was known to be a person of great probity and
zeal for the Roman religion. Many were concerned for his
delivery; and especially friar Zenon, of the same order,
who tried every method to effect it. When the news of his
imprisonment came to Europe, persons were very differently
affected. His brother, the lord Chateau des Bois, solicited
the Portugal ambassador at Paris, till he prevailed with him
to send letters to his Portuguese majesty, to desire his pe-
remptory orders to the inquisitors at Goa, to dismiss Ephraim
from his prison. The pope also himself sent letters to Goa,
commanding him to be set free, under the penalty of excom-
munication. The king also of Golconda, who had a friend-
ship for him, because he had given him some knowledge of
the mathematics, commanded the city of St. Thomas to be
besieged, and to be put to fire and sword, unless Ephraim
was immediately restored to his liberty. The inquisitors
not being able to surmount all these difficulties, sent hind
word that the prison gates wrere Qpen, and that he might
have his liberty when he pleased. But he would not leave
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 159
his jail, till he was brought out by a solemn procession of
the ecclesiastics of Goa. And although there are many in-
stances of the like injustice, yet they very seldom publicly
punish the injustice and cruelty of the inquisitors, lest their
authority, which they would have always accounted sacred,
should be contemned. The inquisitor may also appoint a
vicar general over his whole province, with a power of pro-
ceeding to a definitive sentence on the impenitent and relap-
sed, and of receiving informations and accusations against
any persons, and of citing, arresting, and putting in irons
witnesses and criminals, and of putting them to the question
or torture ; and in general, of doing every thing which the
inquisitor himself, if present, could do.
The counsellors or assessors of the inquisition are skilful
persons, such as divines, canonists, and layers, whom the in-
quisitors call in, in difficult cases, to assist them with their
advice. When any questions happen in the trials of the causes
of heresy, relating to the quality, i. e. the nature and degree
of guilt in any propositions spoken by heretics, or persons
suspected of heresy, the decision in such affairs belongs to
the divines, who are thence called qualificators; who are to
determine whether it be heretical, or favours of heresy, or
erroneous, or such as offends pious ears, or rash, or scanda-
lous, or schismatical, or seditious, or blasphemous, or inju-
rious. The layers are consulted about the punishment or
absolution of offenders, and other the like merits of causes*
However, the inquisitors are not bound necessarily to follow
the advice of these counsellors ; but after they have heard
their opinions, are free to determine and act what they think
proper. These counsellors are sworn to secrecy, and are
not acquainted with the names of the criminals or witnesses.
The promoter fiscal is that officer of the inquisition, who
acts the part of accuser. It belongs to him to examine the
depositions of the witnesses, and give information of crimi-
nals to the inquisitors ; to demand their apprehension and
imprisonment, and, when apprehended or admonished, to
accuse them.
160 THE. HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
The notaries, registers, or secretaries of the inquisition
write down the injunctions, accusations, and all the plead-
ings of the causes; the depositions of the witnesses, and an-
swers of the criminals ; and whether the colour of their face
changes ; whether they tremble or hesitate in speakino-, whe-
ther they frequently interrupt the interrogatories by hawkino-
or spitting, or whether their voice trembles ; that by these
circumstances, they may know when to put the criminals to
the torture. These notaries may be chosen either of the
laity, or from the monks and clergy. They swear them
faithfully to execute that office, and to keep the strictest
secrecy.
The judge and receiver of the forfeited effects, is the
attorney belonging to the treasury of the inquisition ; who
demands, defends, and sells, the confiscated goods of he-
retics, and pays the salaries and other expences of the holy
office.
The executors are they who execute and perform the
commands of the inquisitors. They apprehend and keep in
custody criminals, and pursue them in any places to which
they may have escaped ; and may, when needful, put them
in irons. All persons, whether magistrates or others, are
obliged to assist them, when they are endeavouring to ap-
prehend any person, or seize his effects, upon penalty of a
large fine, and being put under the ban.
The familiars are the bailiffs of the inquisition, which,
though a vile office in all other criminal courts, is esteemed
so honourable in this of the inquisition, that there is not a
nobleman in the kingdom of Portugal who is not in it ; and
these are commonly employed by the inquisitors to take per-
sons up. If several persons are to be taken up at the same
time, the familiars must so order things, that they may know
nothing of each other's being apprehended. And at this the
familiars are so expert, that a father and his three sons and
three daughters, who lived together at the same house,
were all carried prisoners to the inquisition, without know-
ing any thing of one another's being there till seven years
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 161
afterwards, when they of them who were alive, came forth
in an act of faith.
There is a particular kind of these familiars, who wear
crosses, instituted by Dominic ; who vow upon oath, before
the inquisitors, that they will defend the catholic faith,
though with the loss of fortune and life. The inquisitors
give them red crosses, which they have blessed, and may
compel them to perform their vow.
The visitor of the inquisition is one who goes into all
the provinces where the inquisitors are, and reports to the
inquisitor general and council whatever he thinks proper to
be amended ; and whether the several inquisitors have ob-
served the several orders and rules prescribed to them, that
in case of any offences, they may be duly punished.
The civil magistrate is under great subjection to these
inquisitors and their officers. He swears to defend the
catholic faith, and to cause all the constitutions relating to
the inquisition to be observed, and that he will study to ex-
terminate all persons marked out for heretics by the church.
And if any temporal lord shall, after admonition by the
church, neglect to purge his dominions from heretical pra-
vity, for the space of a year after such admonition, his
country is ordered to be seized, and the person seizing it al-
lowed to possess it without contradiction . When any persons
are condemned for heresy by the inquisitors, the civil ma-
gistrate is obliged to receive them as soon as delivered to
him, and to punish them with the deserved punishment ;
without presuming directly or indirectly to hinder any judg-
ment, sentence, or process of the inquisitors.
The office of the jail-keepers is not to be described ;
though some account of their jail will not be amiss.
All criminals have not alike places of imprisonment; their
cells being either more terrible and dark, or more easy and
chearful, according to the quality of the persons and their
offences. In reality, there is no place in the prison of the
inquisition that can be called pleasant or chearful, the whole
jail is so horrible and nasty.
y
162 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
These jails are called in Spain and Portugal " Santa
Casa," i. e. the holy house. Every thing it seems in this
office must be holy. The prisons are so built, as the author
of the History of the Inquisition at Goa describes them, that
they will hold a great number of persons. They consist of
several porticoes ; every one of which is divided into several
small cells of a square form, each side being about ten feet.
There are two rows of them, one being built over the other,
and all of them vaulted. The upper ones are enlightened
by iron grates, placed above the height of a tall man. The
lower ones are under ground, dark, without any window,
and narrower than the upper ones. The walls are five feet
thick. Each cell is fastened with two doors ; the inner one
thick, and covered over with iron, and in the lower part of
it there is a little small window, through which they reach to
the prisoner his meat, linen, and other necessaries, which is
shut with two iron bolts. The outer door is entire, without
any opening at all. They generally open it in the morning,
from six o'clock till eleven, in order to refresh the air of the
prison.
In Portugal all the prisoners, men and women, without
any regard to birth or dignity, are shaved the first or second
day of their imprisonment. Every prisoner hath two pots
of water every day, one to wash, and the other to drink ;
and a besom to cleanse his cell, and a mat made of rushes to
lie upon, and a larger vessel to ease nature, with a cover to
put over it, which is changed once every four days. The
provisions which are given to the prisoners, are rated ac-
cording to the season, and the dearness or plenty of eata-
bles. But if any rich person is imprisoned, and will live
and eat beyond the ordinary rate of provisions, and accord-
ing to his own manner, he may be indulged, and have what
is decent and fit for him, and his servant, or servants, if he
hath any, with him in the jail. If there are any provisions
left, the jail-keeper, and no other, must take them, and
give them to the poor. But Reginald Gonsalvius observes,
p. 106. that this indulgence is not allowed to prisoners of
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 1G3
all sorts, bat to such only as are taken up for small offences,
who are to be condemned to a fine. But if they find by the
very accusation that any persons are to be punished with
forfeiture of all their effects, they do not suffer them to live
so plentifully, but order them a small pension for their sub-
sistence, viz. about thirty maravedis, of the value of ten
Dutch stivers. This agrees with the account of Isaac
Orobio, who had a plentiful fortune at Seville, and was
nevertheless used very hardly in the prison of the inquisi-
tion there. Although his estate was very large, yet he was
allowed a very small pension to provide himself provision.
This was flesh, which they made him sometimes dress and
prepare for himself, without allowing* him the help of any
servant. In this manner are the richer prisoners treated.
As to the poorer, and such who have not enough to supply
themselves in jail, their allowance is fixed by the king, viz.
the half of a silver piece of money,, called a real,1 every
day ; and out of this small sum, the buyer of their provi-
sion, whom they call the dispenser, and their washer, must
be paid, and all other expences that are necessary for the
common supports of life. Besides, this very royal allowance
for the prisoners doth not come to them but through the
hands of several persons, and those none of the most honest;
first by the receiver, then the dispenser, then the cook, then
the jail-keeper, who, according to his office, distributes the
provisions amongst the prisoners. Gonsalvius adds, that
he gave this particular account of this matter, because all
these persons live, and have their certain profits out of this
small allowance of the king to the prisoners ; which coming
to theni through the crooked hands of these harpies, they
cannot receive it till every one of them hath taken out more
than a tenth part of it.
(l) Dr. Geddes tells us of one in the inquisition at Lisbon, who was
allowed no more than three vintems a day; a vintem is about an English
penny farthing.
y2
164 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa tells
us, this order is observed in distributing the provisions.
The prisoners have meat given them three times every day ;
and even those who have the misfortune to be in this case,
though they have money, are not treated much better than
others, because their riches are employed to make provision
for the poorer. I was informed by Isaac Orobio, that in
Spain they sometimes give the prisoners coals, which they
must light, and then dress their own food. Sometimes they
allow them a candle. Those who are confined in the lower
cells generally sit in darkness, and are sometimes kept there
for several years, without any one's being suffered to go or
speak to them, except their keepers ; and they only at cer-
tain hours, when they give them their provision. They are
not allowed any books of devotion, but are shut up in dark-
ness and solitude, that they may be broke with the horrors
of so dreadful a confinement, and by the miseries of it forced
to confess things which oftentimes they have never done.
And how dreadful the miseries of this prison are, we
have a famous instance given us by Reginald Gonsalvius
Montanus.1 In the age before the last, a certain English
ship put in at the port of Cadiz, which the familiars of the
inquisition, according to custom, searched upon the account
of religion, before they suffered any person to come ashore.
They seized on several English persons who were on board,
observing in them certain marks of evangelical piety, and of
their having received the best instruction, and threw them
into jail. In that ship there was a child, ten or twelve
years, at most, old, the son of a very rich English gentle-
man, to whom, as was reported, the ship and principal part
of her loading belonged. Amongst others, they took up
also this child. The pretence was, that he had in his hands
the psalms of David in English. But, as Gonsalvius tells
us, those who knew their avarice and cursed arts, may well
believe, without doing any injury to the holy inquisition,
(l) P. 119.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 165
that they had got the scent of his father's wealth, and that
this was the true cause of the child's imprisonment, and of
all that calamity that followed after it. However, the ship
with all its cargo was confiscated ; and the child, with the
other prisoners, were carried to the jail of the inquisition
at Seville, where he lay six or eight months. Being kept iii
so strait confinement for so long a while, the child, who had
been brought up tenderly at home, fell into a very danger-
ous illness, through the dampness of the prison, and the
badness of his diet. When the lords inquisitors were in-
formed of this, they ordered him to be taken out of the jail,
and carried, for the recovery of his health, to the hospital,
which they call the Cardinal. Here they generally brino-
all who happen to fall ill in the prison of the inquisition ;
where, besides the medicines, of which, according to the
pious institution of the hospital, there is plenty, and a little
better care, upon account of the distemper, nothing is abated
of the severity of the former jail; no person besides the phy-
sician, and the servants of the hospital, being allowed to
visit the sick person ; and as soon as ever he begins to grow
better, before he is fully recovered, he is put again into his
former jail. The child, who had contracted a very grievous
illness from that long and barbarous confinement, was car-
ried into the hospital, where he lost the use of both his leo-s :
nor was it ever known what became of him afterwards. In
the mean while it was wonderful, that the child, in so ten-
der an age, gave noble proofs how firmly the doctrine of
piety was rooted in his mind ; oftentimes, but especially
morning and evening, lifting up his eyes to heaven, and
praying to him, from whom he had been instructed by his
parents, to desire and hope for certain help ; which the jail-
keeper having often observed, said, he was already grown a
great little heretic.
About the same time1 a certain person was taken up
and thrown into the same jail, who had voluntarily abjured
(l) P. 121,
168 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
the Mahometan impiety, and came but a little before from
Morocco, a famous city of Mauritania, and capital of the
kingdom, into that, part of Spain which lies directly over
against it, with a design to turn Christian. When he had
observed that the Christians were more vicious and corrupt
than the Moors he had left, he happened to say, that the
Mahometan law seemed to him better than the Christian.
For this the good fathers of the faith laid hold of him, thrust
him into jail, and used him so cruelly, that he said publicly,
even when in confinement, that he never repented of his
Christianity, from the day he was baptized, till after his
having been in the inquisition, where he was forced against
his will to behold all manner of violences and injuries what-
soever.
The complaint of Constantine, the preacher of Seville,
was not less grievous concerning the barbarities of this
prison ;s who, although he had not as yet tasted of the tor-
tures, yet often bewailed his misery in this jail, and cried
out : " O my God, were there no Scythians in the world,
no cannibals more fierce and cruel than Scythians, into
whose hands thou couldst carry me, so that I might but
escape the paws of these wretches ?" Olmedus also, another
person famous for piety and learning, fell into the inquisitors
hands at Seville ; and through the inhumanity of his treat-
ment, which had also proved fatal to Constantine, contracted
a grievous illness, and at last died in the midst of the nasti-
iiess and stench. He was used to say, " Throw me any
where, O my God, so that I may but escape the hands of
these wretches."
The author of the History of Goa agrees in this account,3
who frankly owns, that through the cruelty and length of
his imprisonment he fell into despair, and thereby often at-
tempted to destroy himself; first by starving himself; and
because that did not succeed, he feigned himself sick ; and
when the physician of the inquisition found his pulse un->
(l) P. 104. (2) Cap. 19, 20, 21.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 167
equal, and that he was feverish, he ordered him to be let
blood, which was done again five days after. When the
doctor was gone, he unbound his arm every day, that so by
the large effusion of blood, he might continually grow
weaker and weaker. In the mean while he eat very little,
that by hunger, and loss of blood, he might put an end to
his miserable life. Whilst he was in this sad condition, he
had sent him a confessor of the Franciscan order, who, by
various arguments of comfort, endeavoured to recover him
from his despair. They also gave him a companion in his
jail, which was some comfort to him in his confinement.
But growing well again after about five months, they took
his companion from him. The lonesomeness of his jail
brought on again his melancholy and despair, which made
him invent another method to destroy himself. He had a piece
of gold money, which he had concealed in his clothes,
which he broke into two parts ; and making it sharp, he
opened with it a vein in each arm, and lost so much blood,
that he fell into a swoon, the blood running about the jail.
But some of the servants happening to come before the
usual time to bring him something, found him in this con-
dition. The inquisitor hereupon ordered him to be loaded
with irons upon his arms and hands, and strictly watched.
This cruelty provoked him to that degree, that he en-
deavoured to beat his brains out against the pavement and
the walls ; and undoubtedly the ligaments upon his arms
would have been torn off, had he continued any longer in
that state. Upon this they took off his chains, gave him
good words, encouraged him, and sent him a companion,
by> whose conversation he was refreshed, and bore his
misery with a little more easiness of mind. But after two
months they took him from him again, so that the solitude
of his jail was more distressing to him than before.
The prisoners,1 as soon as ever they are thrown into jail,
are commanded to give an account of their name and busi-
(l) Inquis. Goan, cap. I3j.
168 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
ness. Then they inquire after their wealth; and to induce
them to give in an exact account, the inquisition promises
them, that if they are innocent, all that they discover to
them shall be faithfully kept for, and restored to them ;
but that if they conceal any thing-, it shall be confiscated,
though they should be found not guilty. And as in Spain
and Portugal most persons are fully persuaded of the sanc-
tity and sincerity of this tribunal, they willingly discover all
their possessions, even the most concealed things of their
houses, being certainly persuaded, that when their innocence
shall appear, they shall soon recover their liberty and effects
together. But these miserable creatures are deceived ; for
he that once falls into the hands of these judges, is stripped
at once of all he was possessed of. For if any one denies
his crime, and is convicted by a sufficient number of wit-
nesses, he is condemned as a negative convict, and all his
effects confiscated. If to escape the jail he confesses his
crime, he is guilty by his own confession, and in the judg-
ment of all justly stripped of his effects. When he is dis-
missed from prison as a convert and penitent, he dares not
defend his innocence, unless he desires to be thrown again
into jail, and condemned ; and, as a feigned penitent, to be
delivered over to the secular arm.
When the prisoner is brought before his judge,1 he ap-
pears with his head and arms, and feet naked. In this con-
dition he is brought out of jail by the warder. When he
comes to the room of audience, the warder goes a little for-
ward, and makes a profound reverence, then withdraws,
and the prisoner enters by himself. At the farther end of the
audience room there is placed a crucifix, that reaches almost
to the ceiling. In the middle of the hall is a table about
five feet long, and four broad, with seats all placed round it.
At one end of the table, that which is next to the crucifix,
sits the notary of the inquisition; at the other end the in-
quisitor, and at his left hand the prisoner sitting upon a
(l) Inquis. Goan, cap. 18.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 169
bench. Upon the table is a missal, upon which the prisoner
is commanded to lay his hand, and to swear that he will
speak the truth, and keep every thing secret. After they
have sufficiently interrogated him, the inquisitors ring a
bell for the warder, who is commanded to carry back his
prisoner to jail.
No one in the prison must so much as mutter, or make any
noise, but must keep profound silence. If any one bemoans
himself, or bewails his misfortune, or prays to God with an
audible voice, or sings a psalm or sacred hymn, the jail-
keepers, who continually watch in the porches, and can hear
even the least sound, immediately come to him, and ad-
monish him that silence must be preserved in this house.
If the prisoner doth not obey, the keepers admonish him
again. If after this the prisoner persists, the keeper opens
the door, and prevents his noise, by severely beating him
with a stick ; not only to chastise him, but to deter others,
who, because the cells are contiguous, and deep silence is
kept, can very easily hear the outcries and sound of the
blows. I will add here a short story that I had from several
persons ; which, if true, shews us with what severity they
keep this silence. A prisoner in the inquisition coughed.
The jailors came to him, and admonished him to forbear
coughing, because it was unlawful to make any noise in that
house. He answered, it was not in his power. However,
they admonished him a second time to forbear it ; and be-
cause he did not, they stripped him naked, and cruelly beat
him. This increased his cough ; for which they beat him so
often, that at last he died through the pain and anguish of
the stripes.
They insist so severely on keeping this silence, that they
may cut oif every degree of comfort from the afflicted ; and
especially for this reason, that the prisoners may not know one
another, either by singing, or any loud voice. For it often-
times happens, that after two or three years confinement in
the jail of the inquisition, a man doth not know that his
friend, nor a father that his children and wife are in the
z V
170 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
same prison, till they all see each other in the act of faith.
And finally, that the prisoners in the several cells may not
talk with one another ; which, if ever found out, their cells
are immediately changed.
If any one falls ill in the prison, they send to him a sur-
geon and physician, who administer all proper remedies to
him to recover him to health. If there be any danger of his
dying, they send him a confessor, if he desires it. If the
criminal doth not ask for a confessor, and the physician
believes the distemper to be dangerous, he must be per-
suaded by all means to confess ; and if he judicially satisfies
the inquisitors, he is to be reconciled to the church before
he dies ; and being absolved in judgment, the confessor
must absolve him sacramentally.
If he is well, and desires a confessor, some are of opinion
he may not have one granted him, unless he hath confessed
judicially. Others think he may ; and in this case the con-
fessor's business is to exhort him to confess his errors, and
to declare the whole truth, as well of himself as of others,
as he is bound de jure to do. However, he must add, that
he must not accuse himself or others falsely, through weari-
ness of his imprisonment, the hope of a more speedy deliver-
ance, or fear of torments. Such a criminal the confessor
cannot absolve, before his excommunication is first taken off,
and he is reconciled to the church. But in Italy the pri-
soners are more easily allowed a confessor than in Spain.
They are particularly careful not to put two or more in
the same cell, unless the inquisitor for any special reason
shall so order, that they may not concert with one another
to conceal the truth, to make their escape, or to evade their
interrogatories. The principal reason, indeed, seems to be,
that through the irksomeness of their imprisonment, they
may confess whatsoever the inquisitors would have them.
But if an' husband and his wife are both imprisoned for the
same offence, and there be no fear that one should prevent
the other from making a free confession of the crime, they
may be put in the same cell.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 171
The inquisitors1 are obliged to visit the prisoners twice
every month, and to enquire whether they have necessaries
allowed them, and whether they are well or not. In this
visit they usually ask him in these very words ; How he is ?
How he hath his health ? Whether he wants any thing ?
Whether his warder is civil to him? i. e. Whether he speaks
to him in a reproachful and severe manner ? Whether he
gives him his appointed provision, and clean linen ? and the
like.2 These are exactly the sentences and words they use
in these visits, to which they neither add any thing, nor act
agreeable ; for they use them only for form's sake, and when
the inquisitor hath spoken them he immediately goes away,
scarce staying for an answer. And although any one of the
prisoners complains that he is not well used, it is of no ad-
vantage to him, nor is he better treated for the future. If
there be occasion or necessity, it will be convenient for them
to visit the prisoners three or four times every month, yea,
as often as they think proper ; viz. when the criminal bears
with impatience the misfortune and infamy of his imprison-
ment, in such case the inquisitor must endeavour to comfort
him very often, not only by himself, but by others ; and to
tell him, that if he makes a free confession, his whole affair
shall be quickly and kindly ended.
The inquisitors must take care not to talk with the cri-
minals, when they are examined or visited, upon any other
affairs but such as relate to their business. Nor must the
inquisitor be alone when he visits, or otherwise gives them
audience ; but must have with him his colleague, or at least
a notary, or some other faithful servant of the holy office.
This also they are particularly careful of, that the crimi-
nals may not be removed from one cell to another, nor
associate with any other. If any prisoners have been shut
up together at once in the same cell, when they are removed
they must be removed together, that hereby they may be
(l) Gonsalv. p. 125. (2) Inquis. Goan. c. 12.
z 2
172 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
prevented from communicating any thing that hath been
transacted in the prison. This is more especially to be
observed, in case any of them recall their confession, after
they have been removed from one cell and company to
another. But if a criminal confesses, and is truly converted,
he may more easily be removed from one cell to another,
because the inquisitor is in no pain for fear of his retracting,
but may oftentimes make use of him to draw out the truth
from other prisoners.
If women are imprisoned, they must each of them have,
according* to their quality, one honest woman at least for a
companion, who must never be absent from her, to prevent
all suspicion of evil. This companion must be ancient, of
a good life, pious and faithful . Sometimes when women
are to be imprisoned, they do not carry them to the jail of
the inquisitors, especially if they are regulars, if the jails be
within the walls of the monasteries, but to the convents of
the nuns. When this happens, they command the abbess or
prioress to admit nobody to discourse with the prisoner
without express leave of the inquisitor, but diligently to
observe the order given her. But when the cause is of
importance, and full of danger, and such they esteem all
that relate to the faith, they think it safer that women
should be imprisoned in the jails of the inquisitors. But
the cardinals inquisitors general are to be consulted in this
affair, who, after mature consideration, are to determine
whether it be most expedient that such criminals should be
kept in the jails of the bishops, or inquisitors regulars ;
especially if they are young and handsome, as is often the
case of those who are taken up for telling people's for-
tunes about their sweethearts.
It is farther the custom and received use of this holy
tribunal, that such who are imprisoned for heresy are not
admitted to hear mass, and other prayers which are said
within the jail, till their cause is determined. Their prin-
cipal pretence for this custom is, that it may possibly happen,
when there is a great number of criminals, that the several
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 173
accomplices, companions and partakers of the crime, may at
least by nods and signs discover to one another how they
may escape judgment, or conceal the truth.
But the true and genuine reason is, that the prisoner may
have nothing to contemplate besides his present misfortune ;
that so being broken with the miseries of his confinement,
he may confess whatsoever the inquisitors would have him.
For this reason they deny them books, and all other things
that would be any relief to them in their tedious imprison-
ment. If any one of the prisoners whatsoever prays the
inquisitor when he visits him, that he may have some good
book, or the holy Bible, he is answered, that the true book
is to discover the truth, and to exonerate his conscience be-
fore that holy tribunal ; and that this is the book which he
must diligently study, viz. to recover the remembrance of
every thing faithfully, and declare it to their lordships, who
will immediately prescribe a rgmedy to his languishing souL
If the prisoner in the same or next visit is importunate about
it, he will be commanded silence ; because if he asks to
please himself, they may grant or deny him according to
their pleasure.
The keeping the jail anciently belonged to the executor's
office ; and as often as he was absent, he was obliged to
provide another keeper at his own charge. But now the
jail-keeper is created by the inquisitor -general, and is dif-
ferent from the executor.
Those who keep the jails for the crime of heresy, must
swear before the bishop and inquisitor that they will faith-
fully keep their prisoners, and observe all other things
prescribed them.
Formerly there were two keepers to every jail, but now
there is only one jail-keeper appointed in every province,
chosen by the inquisitor general, who is not allowed to give
the prisoners their food. But the inquisitors choose some
proper person to this office, who is commonly called the
dispenser. The provisions they give the criminals are
generally prepared and dressed in the house of the in qui-
174 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
sition ; because if they were to be prepared in the houses of
the criminals themselves, or any where else, something
might easily be hid under them, that might furnish them
with the means to conceal the truth, or to elude or escape
judgment. This however is to be left to the prudence and
pleasure of the inquisitors, whether and when the criminals
may without danger prepare their provision in their own
houses. But upon account of the hazard attending it, the
inquisitors but seldom, and not without exquisite care,
gratify them in this particular. If any tilings are sent them
by their friends or relations, or domestics, the jail-keeper
and dispenser never suffer them to have them, without first
consulting the inquisitors.
As these keepers have it in their power greatly to injure
or serve their prisoners, they must promise by an oath,
before the bishop and inquisitors, that they will exercise a
faithful care and concern in keeping them ; and that neither
of them will speak to any of them but in presence of the
other, and that they will not defraud them of their provision,
nor of those things which are brought to them. Their ser-
vants also are obliged to take this oath.
But notwithstanding this law, a great part of the provi-
sion appointed for the prisoners is withheld from them by
their covetous keepers ; and if they are accused for this to
the inquisitors, they are much more gently punished, than if
they had used any mercy towards them. Reginald Gonsalve
relates,1 that in his time Gaspar Bennavidius was keeper of
a jail. "He was a man of monstrous covetousness and
cruelty, who defrauded his miserable prisoners of a great
part of their provisions, which were ill dressed, and scarce
the tenth part of what was allowed them, and sold it se-
cretly, for no great price, at the Triana. Besides, he wholly
kept from them the little money allowed them to pay for the
washing of their linen ; thus suffering them to abide many
(l) P. lll,&c.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 175
days together in a nasty condition, deceiving the inquisitor
and treasurer, who put that money to the keepers account,
as though it had been expended every week for the use of
the prisoners, for whom it was appointed. Neither was it
very difficult to deceive them, because they took but little
pains to inquire out the truth. If any one of the prisoners
complained, muttered, or opened his mouth upon account
of this intolerable usage, the cruel wretch, who had divested
himself of all humanity, had a remedy at hand. He brought
the prisoner immediately out of his apartment, and put him
down into a place they call Mazmorra, a deep cistern that
had no water in it. There he left him for several days
together, without any thing to lie on, not so much as straw.
His provision there was so very rotten, that it was more
proper to destroy his health by sickness, than to preserve it,
or support him in life. All this he did without ever con-
sulting the inquisitors, and yet fraudulently and villanously
pretended their command to his prisoner. If any one be-
sought him to complain to the inquisitors for so injurious a
treatment, for they could not do it by any other person, and
to desire an audience, the cunning wretch, knowing that the
whole blame must lie upon himself, pretended that he had
asked, but could not obtain it. By such forged answers he
kept the miserable prisoner in that deep pit twelve or fif-
teen days, more or less, till he had fully gratified his anger
and cruelty. After this he brought him out, and threw him
into his former jail ; persuading him that this favour was
owing to his humanity and care, having made intercession
for him with their lordships. In short, his thefts and inju-
ries with which he plagued his prisoners, who were other-
wise miserable enough, were so numerous, that some persons
of interest with the inquisitors at length accused him before
them. Upon this he was imprisoned himself; and being-
found guilty of many false accusations, he received this sen-
tence : that he should come out at a public act of the faith,
carrying a wax candle in his hand, be banished live years
from the city, and forfeit the whole sum of money, which by
176 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
virtue of his office he was to have received from the holy
tribunal."
" This very man/ whilst he was keeper, had in his family
an ancient servant maid, who observing the distress of the
prisoners, labouring under intolerable hunger and mistiness,
through the wickedness and barbarity of her master, was so
moved with pity towards them, being herself well inclined
to the evangelical piety, that she often spoke to them through
the doors of their cells, comforted them, and as well as she
could exhorted them to patience, many times putting them
in meat under their doors, in proportion to the mean and
low abilities of her condition. And when she had nothing
of her own, by which to shew her liberality to the prisoners
of Christ, she stole good part of that provision from the
wicked thief her master, which he had stolen from the pri-
soners, and restored it to them. And that we may the more
wonder at the providence of God, who so orders it that the
worst of parents shall not have always the worst of children,
but sometimes even the best, a little daughter of the keeper
himself was greatly assisting to the maid in these pious
thefts. By means of this servant the prisoners had informa-
tion of the state of the affairs of their brethren and fellow
prisoners, which much comforted them, and was oftentimes
of great service to their cause. But at length the matter
was discovered by the lords inquisitors, by whom she was
thrown into prison for a year, and underwent the same fate
with the other prisoners, and condemned to walk in the
public procession with a yellow garment, and to receive two
hundred stripes ; which was executed upon her the follow-
ing day, through the streets of the city, with the usual pomp
and cruelty. To all this was added banishment from the
city and its territories, for ten years. Her title was, " The
favouress and aidress of heretics." What excited the im-
placable indignation of the.lords, the fathers of the faith?
(1) P. 114.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 177
against her, was, that they discovered in her examination,
that she had revealed the secrets of the most holy tribunal
to some of the inhabitants of the city, particularly relating
to the provision allotted to the prisoners. From both these
examples, and from their different and unequal punishment,
any one may see how much safer it is to add to the affliction
of the prisoners in their jail, than to comfort them by any
act of humanity and mercy whatsoever."
And in order that the jail of heretics may be kept secret,
no one of the officials, no not the judge himself, can enter it
alone, or speak with the prisoners but before another of the
officials, nor without the previous order of the inquisitors.
All are obliged to swear that they will observe this, that no
one may see or speak to the prisoners besides the person
who gives them their necessaries ; who must be a faithful,
honest person, and is obliged to swear that he will not
discover the secrets, and must be searched to prevent his
carrying any orders or letters to the prisoners.
This command they will have observed as most sacred,
because, as they say, secrecy is the strength of the inquisi-
tion, which might easily be violated, unless this order be
punctually kept ; and therefore they always most severely
punish those who transgress it. Gonsalvius Montanus1 gives
us a very remarkable instance of this. " One Peter ab
Herera, a man not altogether vile, but of some humanity,
and not very old, was appointed keeper of the tower of
Triana, which is the prison of the inquisition. It happened,
as it often doth in such numerous and promiscuous imprison-
ments, that amongst other prisoners committed to his cus-
tody, there was a certain good matron, with her two
daughters, who were put in different cells, and earnestly de-
sired the liberty of seeing one another, and comforting each
other in so great a calamity. They therefore earnestly
entreated the keeper, that he would suffer them to be to-
(l) P. 108.
2 A
178 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
getlier for one quarter of an hour, that they might have the
satisfaction of embracing each other. He being moved with
humanity and compassion, allowed them to be together, and
talk with one another for half an hour ; and after they had
indulged their mutual affections, he put them, as they were
before, in their separate prisons. A few days after this they
were put with great cruelty to the torture ; and the keeper
being afraid, that through the severity of their torments,
they should discover to the lords, the fathers inquisitors, his
small humanity in suffering them to converse together for
half an hour without the inquisitors leave ; through terror,
went himself to the holy tribunal, of his own accord con-
fessed his sin, and prayed for pardon ; foolishly believing,
that by such his confession he should prevent the punishment
that threatened him for this action. But the lords inquisi-
tors judged this .to be so heinous a crime, that they ordered
him immediately to be thrown into jail ; and such was the
cruelty of his treatment, and the disorder of mind that fol-
lowed on it, that he soon grew distracted. However, his
disorder and madness did not save him from a more grievous
punishment. For after he had lain a full year in that cursed
prison, they brought him out in the public procession,
cloathed with the yellow garment, and an halter round his
neck, as though he had been a common thief; and con-
demned him first to receive two hundred lashes through the
streets of the city, and then to the gallies for six years. The
day after the procession, as he was carried from the Triana
to be whipped with the usual solemnity, his madness, which
usually seized him every other hour, came on him ; and
throwing himself from the ass, on which, for the greater
shame, he was carried, he flew upon the inquisitory Algua-
zile,1 and snatching from him a sword, had certainly killed
him, had he not been prevented by the mob who attended
him, and set him again upon the ass, and guarded him till
(l) An officer that executes the orders of the inquisition
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 179
he bad received the two hundred lashes according- to his
sentence. After this the lords inquisitors ordered, that as
he had behaved himself indecently towards the Alguazile,
four years more should be added to the six for which he was
at first condemned to the gallies."
These keepers are answerable for the smallest fault, for
they are to use the same care in the custody of their pri-
soners, as fathers ought to do in governing their families ;
so that if they suffer any one to escape from jail, they are to
be punished according to the nature of their offence. It is
therefore their business frequently to visit and search the
cells of their prisoners, to prevent any thing from being
clandestinely carried in, by which they may destroy them-
selves, dig through the walls, and so escape. Their care
of the women is to be peculiarly strict ; since the sex is na-
turally frail, and more subject than men to yield to passion
and despair, and so are more likely to seek an occasion of
destroying themselves. They must, above all other things,
take care that they do not behave themselves indecently to-
wards their women prisoners. Thus the congregation of
cardinals inquisitors general condemned a jail-keeper to
the gallies for seven years, and to perpetual banishment
from the place where he committed his offence, for having
carnal knowledge of a woman that was prisoner in the holy
office.
If the inquisitor thinks it necessary to prevent the escape
of any prisoners, he may lay them in irons. If the poverty
of the inquisitors is so great, or their jails so defective, as that
they are not fit to hold in safe custody, either for the thin-
ness of the walls, or for want of iron bars to the windows,
or sufficient boits for the doors, if the magistrate be required
by the inquisitor, he must take care of the safe custody of
the prisoners.
What the several duties of the messenger, door-keeper,
and physician are, is plain enough from their very names.
They must be honest men, and not suspected, and born of
old christians.
2 a 2
180 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
The salaries of the inquisitors and officers are differently
paid in different countries.
In Spain there are fixed salaries for the inquisitors, and
other ministers of the holy office, which are paid them at
stated times out of the forfeited effects.
" Every inquisitor hath annually allowed him 60,000,
Which is now increased to an hundred thousand pieces,
every one of which is worth two of those brass pieces of
money, which they commonly call Albi. The judges of the
forfeited effects have each of them 30,000. The promoter
fiscal as many. The scribe or notary the same. The
executor 60,000. The receiver as many. The messenger
20,000. The door-keeper 10,000. The physician 5,000.
These salaries may be increased at the pleasure of the inqui-
sitor general, and are to be paid by the receiver at the fixed
times ; which if he neglects to do, lie may be deprived of
his office by the inquisitors.
" The assessors and counsellors have no stipend, but
must give their advice gratis, when the inquisitors desire it,
as some lawyers affirm ; and though they may receive a
salary freely offered them, yet they cannot demand it,
because all Christians are bound to support and defend the
affair of the Catholic faith. However, these assessors, who
are the eyes of the judges in every cause, even though it be
spiritual, justly receive a salary for their service and labour:
for many things are justly received, which it would be injus-
tice to demand. •"
" Those advocates who defend the causes of the poor,
have a stipend out of the treasury, which is usually very
small, though honourable. But if the criminals are not
poor, the advocates are paid out of their effects."
It is also provided in Spain, by many constitutions, that
inquisitors, who receive gifts, incur the sentence of excom-
munication, and are deprived of their office, and fined double
the value of what they take. However, as the author of
the History of the Inquisition at Goa informs us, the inqui-
sitors know how to amass vast riches, by two methods.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION 181
When the effects of the prisoners, after confiscation, are sold
by the cryer, the inquisitors, notwithstanding- the interdict
to the contrary, usually send one of their domestics, who
bids a low price for such things as his master wants, being-
pretty secure that nobody else will out-bid them : and by
this means they buy very valuable things for half price, or
less. Besides this, the inquisitors have a right to demand
the payment of the expences, and other necessary charges
they have been at, when, and in what sums they please,
whenever the money arising from the confiscations is carried
into the royal treasury ; without ever giving any reason, or
any one's daring to ask them for what purposes they em-
ploy it.
Gonsalvius Montanus also tells us, in his Arts of the
Spanish Inquisition, cap. 10. that the inquisitors are some-
times prevailed with to use their prisoners a little more
kindly, by some pretty presents made by their friends and
relations. But this matter must be dextrously managed,
that so the inquisitor may not refuse the offer. The first
thing, therefore, is, to bribe one of his servants ; in which
there is no difficulty, provided it be done privately. When
the inquisitors themselves are tampered with, they generally
answer, that holy tribunal is incorrupt, and suffers no man-
ner of gifts whatsoever to be received. But "they have
generally, amongst their attendance, some child of their
brother or sister ; or, at least, a servant that they greatly
esteem, and who is to be highly respected, and who only
sees the inquisitor refuse the presents offered to him. This
servant comes to the prisoner's friend, and privately points
out to him the relation of the lord inquisitor. This is giving
him to understand, unless the person be a stock, that though
before he in vain attempted to corrupt the integrity of this
holy tribunal; he may by this conveyance prevail upon the
inquisitor, though he would refuse to accept the same
present when more openly offered him. »
182 THE HISTORY OF PERSECtjTION.
SECT. III.
Of the crimes cognizable by the Inquisition, and the punish-
ment annexed to them.
The first and principal crime is heresy. Three things
are required to make any one properly an heretic. 1. That
he hath been baptized. 2. That he err in his understanding
in matters relating* to the faith, i. e. differ in those points
which are determined by a general council, or the pope, as
necessary to be believed, or enjoined as an apostolic tradi-
tion. 3. Obstinacy of will ; as when any one persists in his
error, after being informed by a judge of the faith that the
opinion he holds is contrary to the determination of the
church, and wiH not renounce it at the command of such a
judge, by abjuring it, and giving suitable satisfaction. This
crime is so widely extended by the doctors of the Romish
church, that they esteem every thing as heresy, that is con-
trary to any received opinion in the church, though it be
merely philosophical, and hath no manner of foundation in
the scripture.
The punishments ordained against heretics are many,
and most grievous. The first is excommunication ; by
which heretics are driven from the church, and expelled
the company of all Christians. The ceremony of it is thus :
when the bishop pronounces the anathema, twelve priests
stand round him, and hold lighted torches in their hands,
which they throw down on the ground, and tread under
foot at the conclusion of the excommunication ; after which
a letter is sent to the proper parishes, containing the names
of the excommunicated persons, and the reason of their
sentence. Persons thus excommunicated, . are deprived of
all ecclesiastical benefices and dignities, and are not to
receive Christian burial.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. ] 83
Being excommunicated, all their effects are forfeited, all
donations by them are null and void, and even portions
paid to children must be revoked, and all legacies to wives
forfeited. The treasury of the inquisition devours all. The
consequence of this is, that the children of heretics are abso-
lutely disinherited ; excepting only when a child accuses his
heretical parents. Heretics are also deprived of their natu-
ral power over their children, and of that civil power they
have over their servants ; so that slaves and servants are,
ipso facto, freed from servitude the moment their masters
fall into heresy. Subjects are also freed from obedience to
heretical princes and magistrates, and absolved from their
oaths of allegiance. In a word, heretics lose all right and
property in every thing that they have. Hence proceeds
the maxim, " that faith is not to be kept with heretics,"
because it ought never to be given them ; and because the
keeping it is against the public good, ( the salvation of souls,
and contrary, as they say, to the laws of God and man.
Farther, all places of refuge, which are open to malefactors,
and the worst of villains, are denied to heretics. Another
punishment is imprisonment ; or if they cannot be appre-
hended, they are put under the ban ; so that any one,
by his own private authority, may seize, plunder, and
kill him as an enemy, or robber. The last penalty is
death, the most terrible one that can be inflicted, viz. the
being burnt to death. Such as are obstinate and impeni-
tent, are to be burnt alive ; others are to be first strangled,
and then burnt.
Heretics are distinguished into open and secret. Open
heretics are such who publicly avow somewhat contrary to
the Catholic faith, or which is condemned as such by the
sentence of the inquisitors., Secret heretics, are such who
«rr in their mind, but have not shewn it outwardly by word
or deed; and these are excommunicated ipso jure : or who by
word or writing have discovered the heresy of their heart
with secrecy and craft ; and such arQ liable to all the punish-
ments of heretics.
184 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Again, heretics are either affirmative or negative. Affir-
mative heretics are such who err in their minds as to matters
of faith ; and who by word or deed shew that they are
obstinate in their wills, and openly confess it before the
inquisitor. Negative heretics are such, who being accord-
ing to the laws of the inquisition convicted of some heresy
before an inquisitor, yet will not confess it ; constantly
declaring that they profess the Catholic faith, and detest
heretical pravity ; or who owning heretical words or
actions, deny the heretical intention ; or who refuse to
discover all their accomplices. Such are generally put to
the torture.
Again, heretics are either impenitent or penitent. An
impenitent is one who, being convicted of heresy, or having
confessed it before an inquisitor, will not obey his judge,
when he commands him to forsake his heresy and abjure it,
but obstinately perseveres in his error ; or who having con-
fessed through fear of punishment, yet afterwards asserts his
innocence, or doth not observe the penance enjoined him.
Penitents are those who, being admonished by the inquisi-
tor, abjure their error, and give suitable satisfaction, as the
bishop or inquisitor enjoins them ; either of their own
accord, or upon any particular inquisition made after them.
Such who return vof their own accord, are treated with
greater mildness ; but the other enjoined a very severe
penance. But they will by no means receive such who do
not return till after frequent admonition, or till fear of
death ; or who endeavour any ways to persuade others to
heresy, especially kings and queens, or the sons and daugh-
ters of princes.
Next to heretics are the believers of heretics, and such
who receive, defend, and favour them ; who by word or
deed declare their belief of an heretic's error, who know-
ingly take them into their houses and other places, and thus
conceal them from the hands of the church, or give them
notice to make their escape, or vindicate them on their trial,
or hinder the procedure of the office of the inquisition ; or
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 185
who, being magistrates, refuse to extirpate them, or to ap-
prehend and keep them in custody, or to punish them when
given over to them by the inquisitors ; or who being prelates
or inquisitors, neglect to have safe prisons, and faithful jail-
keepers, or to apprehend, torture, or punish heretics. These,
ipso facto, incur excommunication ; and if they remain under
it a year, are to be punished as heretics. And finally, such
who visit them privately, whilst in custody, and whisper
with them, and give them food ; or who lament their appre-
hension or death, or who complain they are unjustly con-
demned, or who look with a bitter countenance on their
prosecutors, or who gather up the bones of heretics after
they are burnt ; these are all favourers of heresy, and are
ipso jure excommunicated.
Such also who hinder the office of the inquisition are
subject to this tribunal. This may be done by rescuing
persons taken up for heresy from prison, or by wounding
any of the witnesses against them ; or by using threatenings,
and terrifying words; or by hindering process, judgment,
or sentence ; or if a temporal lord ordains that no one shall
take cognizance of heresy but himself, and that no one shall
be accused but before his tribunal, nor any bear arms but
those of his own household. The punishment of this is
excommunication ; which, if they continue under a year,
they must either abjure, or be delivered over as heretics to
the secular arm. Sometimes their whole dominions are
put under interdict, and given to him who can first con-
quer them.
Yea, they extend this affair sometimes so far, that all
manner of offences committed against any one that belongs
to the inquisitors, though they have no relation to the faith,
are punished in the same manner as though the office of the
inquisition had been hindered by them, or the inquisitor
himself had received some grievous injury. Reginald
Gonsalvius1 gives us a remarkable instance of this, which
(1) P. 191.
2 B
186
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
happened in the former age at Seville. The bishop of Ter-
ragone, chief inquisitor at Seville, went one summer for his
diversion to some pleasant gardens situate by the sea side,
with all his inquisitor y family, and walked out, according
to his custom, with his episcopal attendance. A child of
the gardener, two or three years old at most, accidentally sat
playing upon the side of a pond in the garden, where my
lord bishop was taking his pleasure. One of the boys that
attended his lordship, snatched out of the hand of the gar-
dener's child a reed, with which* he was playing, and made
him cry. The gardener hearing his child, comes to the place;
and when he found out the occasion of his crying, was angry,
and bad the inquisitor's servant restore the reed to him.
And upon his refusal, and insolently contemning the coun-
tryman, he snatched it away ; and as the boy held it fast*
the gardener slightly hurt his hand by the sharp husk of the
reed, in pulling it from him. The wound was far from being
mortal, or from endangering the loss of any part, and so
could not deserve a severe punishment. It was no more
than a scratch of the skin, a mere childish wound, as one
may imagine by the cause of it. However, the inquisitor's
boy came to his master, who was walking near the place, to
complain about his wound ; upon which the inquisitor
orders the gardener to be taken up, and thrown into the
inquisitory jail, and kept him there for nine months in very
heavy irons ; by which he received such damage in his cir-
cumstances, which were at best but mean, as the poor man
could not easily recover ; his children and wife, in the mean
while, being ready to perish for hunger ; and all because he
did not pay deference enough to the inquisitor's boy, as a
member of the holy tribunal. At nine months end they
dismissed him from jail, and would have persuaded him that
they dealt much more mercifully with him than his crime
deserved.
Again, there are other persona who are only suspected of
heresy. This suspicion is threefold ; light, vehement, or
violent. A light suspicion arises from a person's frequent-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 187
ing conventicles, and in his behaviour differing from the
common conversation of the faithful. A vehement suspicion
of heresy, is a person's not appearing when called to answer
upon any article of the faith; hindering the inquisition,
giving council or assistance to heretics ; or advising them
to conceal the truth, or who knowingly accompany, visit, or
receive them ; or who are convicted of perjury or lying, in a
cause of the faith ; or who give ecclesiastical burial to here-
tics, or their favourers, or bury them in church yards with
psalms and prayers ; or who preserve the ashes, bones, gar-
ments, and the like, of buried heretics ; or who think ill of
some doctrine or order of the church, such as the power of
the pope, the religion of the monks, the rites of the sacra-
ment, and the like ; or who persist in their excommunication
for two years ; such persons give such suspicions as are suf-
ficient to put them to the torture. A violent suspicion
arises from such external words and actions by which it may
be effectually, and almost always concluded, that he who
says or doth them is an heretic ; such as the receiving the
communion from heretics, and the like. Of these different
kinds of suspicions the punishment is different. A person
lightly suspected is enjoined canonical purgation, or may be
made to abjure. One vehemently suspected may be com-
manded a general abjuration of all heresies ; after which, if
he relapses into his former heresy, or associates with, and
favours heretics, he is delivered over to the secular power
as a relapse. One violently suspected, is to be condemned
as an heretic. If he confesses and abjures, he may be ad-
mitted to penance ; but if he doth not confess, and will not
abjure, he is to be delivered over to the secular court, and
burnt.
And as some persons are suspected, others are defamed
for heresy ; such who are spoken against by common report,
or such against whom there is legal proof before a bishop
that they are spoken against upon account of heresy. And
to this two witnesses suffice, though they have had their
information from different persons, and though they do not
2 b 2
188 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
agree as to time and place, and the causes of their knowledge ;
and though the person accused as defamed, can prove him-
self to be of good reputation. The punishment of one thus-
defamed is canonical purgation, and some other ordinary
penalty.
Again, other persons are relapsed ; such who after
having been convicted, either by the evidence of the fact, or
their own confession, or legal witnesses, have publicly
abjured their heresy, and are convicted of falling into the
same again, or into any different heresy, or into a violent sus-
picion of heresy, and who accompany, visit, and favour
heretics ; or who are found to be perjured after abjuration,
or who after abjuration and purgation do not perform the
penance enjoined them. But there is this difference between
the last, and the former relapsed persons ; that the former
are left without mercy to the secular arm ; whereas it is in
the inquisitor's pleasure to deliver the latter to secular
judgment, or not.
Those also who read and keep prohibited books are sub-
ject to the tribunal of the inquisition. Pope Pius V. by a
bull excommunicated, amongst others, all who should know-
ingly read, keep in their houses, print, or in any wise defend,
for any cause, publicly or privately, under any pretence or
colour, prohibited books, without the authority of the apos-
tolic see. If any one brings heretical books into any Catho-
lic countries, he is not only excommmnicated, but his goods
confiscated, and himself whipped, if he be of mean condition;
but if he is of the better sort, he is banished at the pleasure
of the inquisitor. If there arises any vehement suspicion
of heresy, from any one's reading, keeping, defending, or
printing the books of heretics, he may be put to the torture
to discover the truth. If any of the clergy read or keep
prohibited books, they are vehemently suspected ; and may
be deprived of the active and passive voice, suspended
from divine services, deprived of the offices of reading,
preaching, &c. and be enjoined fastings, pilgrimages, and
the like.
Jf
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 189
The inquisitors also take cognizance of those who marry
several wives at once, because they are presumed to think
wrong of the sacrament of matrimony ; If upon examination
any one affirms it lawful for a christian man to have several
wives at once, he is taken for a formal heretic, and is to be
punished as such. If he denies any heretical intention, he
must be put to the torture ; that the inquisitors may know
what his mind is, and whether he married two wives out of
any erroneous opinion concerning the sacrament of matri-
mony, or through lust, or carnal concupiscence. All such
persons are suspected of heresy, and must abjure as such,
and may be condemned to the gallies. *f**
If any one celebrates mass, or hears confession, and gives
absolution, not being in priest's orders, he is vehemently
suspected of heresy ; and must abjure as such, and then be
delivered over to the secular arm, to be punished with
death. Raynald gives us an instance of one who said he
was a bishop, though he had not the pope's bull, and as such
consecrated priests. The story is this : u James the priest,
a false Minorite, born in the dutchy of Juliers, forged the
pope's bull, and declared in the Netherlands that he was a
bishop ; and although he had not been ordained a bishop,
he consecrated priests by a false ceremony in several dio-
ceses of Germany and the Low Countries. At length he
was convicted of his wickedness, and the magistrates of
Utrecht thought fit, not to condemn him to the flames, that
he might be quickly consumed, but to be gradually burnt by
boiling water, that so they might conquer his obstinacy,
because he most impudently refused to acknowledge his
crime. But being gradually let down into the boiling caul-
dron, and overcome with the extremity of the pain, he
detested his wickedness, and prayed that he might receive a
milder punishment. His judges being moved with compas-
sion, ordered him to be taken out of the boiling cauldron,
and then to be beheaded."
Those also who solicit women or boys to dishonourable
actions in the sacramental confession, are subject to this tri-
190 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
bunal. Pius IV. published a bull against tliem ; and when
this bull was first brought into Spain, all persons were com-
manded by a public edict, solemnly published throughout
all the churches of the archbishopric of Seville, that whoso-
ever knew or had heard of any monks or clergymen who
had abused the sacrament of confession to these crimes, or
had in any manner acted in this vile manner at confession
with their wives or daughters, they should discover them
within thirty days to the holy tribunal ; and very grievous
censures were annexed to such as should neglect or contemn
it. When the decree was published, so large a number of
women went to the palace of the inquisitors in the city of
Seville only, to make their discoveries of these most wicked
confessors, that twenty secretaries, with as many inquisitors,
were not sufficient to take the depositions of the witnesses.
The lords inquisitors being thus overwhelmed with the mul-
titude of affairs, assigned another thirty days for the witnes-
ses ; and when this was not sufficient, they were forced to
appoint the same number a third and a fourth time. For as
to women of reputation, and others of higher condition,
every time was not proper for them to apply to the inquisi-
tors. On one hand, their conscience forced them to a
discovery through a superstitious fear of the censures and
excommunication ; and on the other hand, their regard to
their husbands, whom they were afraid to offend, by giving
them any ill suspicion of their chastity, kept them at home ;
and therefore veiling their faces, after the Spanish custom,
they went to the lords inquisitors, when, and as privately as
they could. Very few, however, with all their prudence
and craft, could escape the diligent observation of their
husbands at the time of discovery, and hereby possessed
their minds with the deepest jealousy. However, after so
many had been informed against before the inquisitors, that
holy tribunal, contrary to all men's expectations, put a
stop to the affair, and commanded all those crimes which
were proved by legal evidence, to be buried in eternal
oblivion.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 191
It is required that this solicitation be made in the act of
sacramental confession ; and such confessors are vehemently
suspected, and must abjure as such, and be enjoined fastings
and prayers, and may be condemned to the gallies, or perpe-
tual imprisonment ; must be suspended from hearing con-
fessions, and deprived of their benefices, dignities and the
like.
Yea, sometimes, according to the heinousness of the
offence, a more grievous punishment is inflicted. u The
Venetians ordered one of them to be burnt alive, by com-
mand of the pope. He had been father confessor to some
nuns in the dominions of Venice, and had got twelve of
them with child : amongst whom the abbess and two others
had children in one year. As he was confessing them, he
agreed with them about the place, manner, and time of lying
with them. All were filled with admiration and astonish-
ment, taking the man for a perfect saint, he had so great a
shew of sanctity in his very face." Epist. ad Belgas, Cent. 1.
Ep. 66. p. 345. & Ep. 63. p. 316.
In Portugal also the crime of sodomy belongs to the
tribunal of the inquisition. By the laws of that kingdom
sodomites are punished with death, and confiscation of all
their effects ; and their children and grandchildren become
infamous. After the natural death of a sodomite, if the
crime hath not been proved, they cannot proceed against
him, neither as to the crime, nor confiscation of effects,
although the crime can be proved by legal witnesses ;
because crimes, which are not particularly excepted, of which
sodomy is one, are extinguished by the death of the delin-
quent. Nor do they proceed against a dead sodomite, nor
confiscate his effects, although he hath been convicted, or
confessed when he was alive. If such a one takes sanctuary
in a church, he cannot be taken out of it.
If we compare these things with the punishments of
heretics, it will appear that the crime of sodomy in the king-
dom of Portugal is esteemed a much smaller one than that
of heresy, because sodomites enjoy privileges which are
192 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
denied to heretics. And yet it may happen, that a truly
pious man, who fears God, and is most careful of his eternal
salvation, may be accounted an heretic by the Portu-
guese inquisitors ; whereas, a sodomite cannot but be the
vilest of men. But it is not at all strange, that by the laws
of that tribunal Barabbas should be released, and Christ
crucified.
Blasphemers also, who deny God, or their belief in him,
or the virginity of our Lady, are subject to the inquisitors,
and punished in the following manner. If the blasphemy be
very heinous, and the blasphemer a mean person, he is made
to wear an infamous mitre, hath his tongue tied, and pinched
with an iron or wooden gag, is carried forth as a public
spectacle without his cloak, whipped with scourges, and
banished. But if he be a person of better condition, or
noble, he is brought forth without the mitre, thrust for a
time into a monastery, and punished with a fine. In smaller
blasphemies they are dealt with more gently, at the pleasure
of the inquisitors, viz. the blasphemer is condemned to
stand, during divine service, upon some holiday or other,
with his head naked, without his cloak and shoes, his feet
naked, a cord tied round him, and holding a burning wax-
taper in his hands. Sometimes also they squeeze his tongue
with a piece of wood. After divine service is over his sen-
tence is read, by which he is enjoined fastings, and a fine.
This punishment, however, doth not take place as to a
clergyman. For if a clergyman was to appear without his
shoes, and with an halter about his neck, and thus stand at
the gates of the church before the people, the clerical order,
and the ministry of the clergy would suffer disgrace ; and it
would become a wonder, and evil example to the laity, if the
blaspheming clergy were thus exposed.
In these cases the inquisitors mostly act according to
their own pleasure, who have an ample power of judging
according to the nature and heinousness of the crimes. A
certain person who had a quarrel with a clergyman of Ecya^
a city in Spain, accidentally said, in the hearing of others,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 193
that he could not believe that God would come down into
the hands of so profligate an adulterer. The vicar of the
ordinary fined him for the speech. But the clergyman, not
contented with this revenge, afterwards accused him of blas-
phemy at the tribunal of the inquisitors at Seville. Nor did
the fine to which he was before condemned by the ordinary,
prevent his being taken up by command of the inquisitors,
imprisoned for a whole year, brought out in triumph with-
out cloak or hat, carrying a wax candle in his hand, his
tongue gagged with a wooden gag, thus to punish his blas-
phemy ; and being forced to abjure, as lightly suspected, he
was fined a second time.
Fortune-tellers, who look into the palms of the hands,
such who exercise divination by lots, and use candles and
holy water to discover stolen goods, if they deny any here-
tical intention, may be tortured to discover it ; and if found
guilty, are excommunicated, whipped, banished, and subject
to other punishments. If any pretend to foretel the myste-
ries of faith by the stars, or the life or death of the pope, or
his kindred, they may be punished with death, and confisca-
tion of goods. With these fortune-tellers are joined witches ;
who are reported to deny the faith, and make a compact with
the devil. These poor wretches are miserably tortured to
force them to confess, and then burnt. The inquisitors,
within the space of 150 years, burnt 30,000 of them.
Finally, the Jews are also severely handled by this tribu-
nal. The inquisition, indeed, is not designed to compel the
Jews to turn Christians, but is introduced against those who,
being converted from Judaism to Christianity, return again
to the principles they have forsaken ; or who deny matters
of faith common to them and Christians -7 or if they invoke
devils, or sacrifice to them ; or if they speak heretical blas-
phemies, or pervert a Christian from the faith, or hinder
infidels from being converted ; or knowingly receive an
heretic, or keep heretical books, or deride the host or the
cross ; or keep Christian nurses, and the like. But the in-
quisition is levelled principally against those, who having
2 c
194 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
professed Christianity, and been baptized, turn a^ain to
Judaism. When suspected they are liable to the torture,
may be compelled to abjure, fined, imprisoned, whipped, or
burnt, according to the nature of their errors, or heretical
actions.
SECT. IV.
Of the manner of proceeding before the tribunal of the
Inquisition.
It now remains that I give some account of what relates
to the execution of the inquisitorial office.
When the inquisitor is first constituted by the pope, he
must present himself to the king, or other temporal lord of
those territories in which he is to act, and deliver his apos-
tolic commission, and demand full protection for himself and
officers, in all matters belonging to their office. He must
also shew his commission to the archbishops and bishops of
the dioceses in which he is sent. Finally, he takes an oath
from the civil officers, that they will defend the faith, and
obey the inquisitor with all their might ; and this oath they
may compel them to take, under pain of excommunication,
and all the punishments which attend it.
After this, the inquisitor appoints a sermon to be preached
on a certain day, all other sermons being suspended ; at
which, four of each religion must be present, and in which
he commends the Catholic faith, and exhorts the people to
extirpate heretical pravity. When the sermon is ended, he
admonishes them to discover to himself all persons who are
erroneous, and have said or done any thing against the faith ;
and then orders monitory letters to be read from the pulpit,
by which all persons, of whatsoever condition, clergy or
laity? are commanded, under pain of excommunication, to
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 195
discover to the inquisitors within- six or twelve days follow-
ing any heretic, or person suspected of heresy, which they
know. These monitory letters are called, " An edict of the
faith." When these letters are read, he promises, in the
pope's name, indulgences for three years to all who assist
him in reducing heretics, or who discover to him any such ;
or person defamed, and suspected of heresy ; or who, in any
other case, bear true witness before him in an act of faith.
And finally, he assigns a time of grace to all heretics, &c.
viz. the month following ; promising them, that if within
that space they come freely to him, before they are accused
or apprehended, and voluntarily discover their guilt, and ask
pardon, they shall obtain pardon and mercy ; viz. freedom
from death, imprisonment, banishment, and confiscation of
effects.
From this obligation to accuse heretics, no persons, of
whatsoever dignity or degree, are exempted; brother must
accuse brother, the wife her husband, the husband his wife,
the son his father, when heretical, or suspected of heresy ;
the edict obliges all ; and neither kings nor princes, nor
nearest relations are exempted.
Joan, the daughter of the emperor Charles V. was cited
by the inquisitors to be interrogated before them, against a
certain person, concerning some things relating to the faith.
She consulted her father, who advised her to make her de-
position "without any delay (lest she should incur excommuni-
cation) not only against others, but even against himself, if
she knew him to be blameable in the least matter. Joan
obeyed this command of her father, and immediately deposed
before Ferdinand Yaldez, archbishop of Seville, at that time
bishop and inquisitor general.
Lewis de Carvajal, although governor and captain gene-
ral of the province of Tampico and Pamico, was forced to
walk out in public penance, because he did not denounce,
four women, who were secretly Jews, and to whom he was
uncle ; and though a little before he had the honourable
title of president, he was forced to hear his ignominious sen-
2 c 2
196 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
tence publicly, was for ever deprived of all offices under the
king, reduced to the lowest misery, and through grief and
weariness of his life, soon went the way of all flesh.
If any person comes in within the appointed time to.
accuse himself, he is asked, how long he hath continued in
his errors, and from whom he learnt them ? whether he hath
had, and read any heretical or suspected books ? what they
were, from whom he had them, and what he hath done with
them ? Other questions are added concerning his accom-
plices in heresies, that he may tell the names of all those
heretics, or persons suspected of heresy, whom he knows.
He is farther asked, whether he hath ever been inquisited,
processed, or accused or denounced in any tribunal, or before
any judge, on account of the aforesaid errors, or other things
relating to heresy ? He is also admonished simply to tell the
whole truth which he knows, as well of himself as of others ;
because, if he is afterwards found deceitfully to have con-
cealed any thing, he is judged as one whose confession is
imperfect; and as impenitent, and feignedly converted.
Finally, he is interrogated, whether he repents of these
errors and heresies into which he hath fallen ? and whether
he is ready to abjure, curse, and detest them, and all other
heresies whatsoever, that exalt themselves against the holy
apostolic and Roman church, and to live for the future catho-
licly, according to the faith of the church of Rome, and
devoutly to fulfil the salutary penance enjoined him ?
However, such as come thus voluntarily, are far from
escaping all punishment, but are either treated kindly at the
pleasure of the inquisitor, according to the quality of their
persons and crimes, or else condemned to pay a fine, or give
alms, or some such works of charity. But if they wait till
they are accused, denounced, cited or apprehended, or suffer
the time of grace to slip over, they are pronounced unworthy
of such favours.
And in this case many foolishly deceive themselves with
a false opinion, believing, that because favour is promised to
such who appear voluntarily, they shall be free from all
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 197
punishment; because they are only saved from the more
terrible ones, it being left to the pleasure of the inquisitors
to inflict some penitential punishment on them, according- to
,the nature of their crime, as will appear from the following
instance. " There was at the city of Cadiz a certain
foreigner, who yet had lived in Spain for twenty years ; who,
according to a common superstition, dwelt in a desart in a
certain chapel, upon the account of religion. Hearing in his
chapel of the great number of those who were taken up every
day at Seville by the inquisitors, for what they call the Luthe-
ran heresies ; having heard also of the decree of the inqui-
sitors, by which he was commanded, under the terrors of
excommunication, immediately to discover to the inquisition
whatsoever he knew of those things, either as to others or
himself; the poor stupid hermit comes to Seville, goes to
the inquisitors and accuses himself, because he thought the
said inquisitors would use singular clemency towards those
who thus betrayed themselves. His crime was, that whereas
being about twenty years before this at Genoa, and hearing
a certain brother of his disputing about a man's justification
by faith in Christ, of purgatory, and other things of the like
nature, he did not wholly condemn them, though he never
thought of them afterwards. He therefore acknowledged
his crime, and came to ask mercy. When the lords inqui-
sitors had received his confession, they commanded the poor
hermit to jail; where, after a long confinement, he was
brought out in public procession, and was sentenced to wear
the sanbenito, to three years imprisonment, and the forfeiture
of his effects."
Sometimes also they use a certain stratagem to draw
persons to a voluntary appearance before the inquisitors.
w When they have apprehended any remarkable person,
who hath been the teacher of others, or who they know
hath been resorted to by many others, upon account of his
doctrine and learning, as being a teacher and preacher of
great repute : it is usual with them to cause a report to be
spread amongst the people, by their familiars, that being;
198 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
grievously tortured, lie had discovered several of those that
had adhered to him, suborning some persons out of the
neighbouring prisons to assert that they heard his cries
amidst his tortures, in order to give the greater credit to
the report. These reports are spread for this reason, that
such who have attended on his instructions, or have been
any ways familiar with him, may in time go to the holy tri-
bunal, confess their fault, and implore mercy, before they
are sent for, or apprehended. By this means they impose on
man}7, who, if they had waited for their summons, had never
-been summoned at all. Or if it should have happened that
they had been summoned, would not have been dealt with
more severely than they generally are, who trust to the
inquisitors promises."
If any person is accused by another, the accuser is inter-
rogated, " How long he hath known N. against whom he
denounces ? likewise, how he came to know him ? Again,
whether he observed that the aforesaid N. was suspected of
matters relating to the faith from his words, or his actions ?
Likewise, how often he had seen the said N. do or say those
things for which he thought him an heretic, or suspected of
heresy ? Likewise, at what time, and in the presence of
whom the aforesaid N. did or said those things of which he
is denounced ? Likewise, whether the aforesaid N. hath had
any accomplices in the aforesaid crimes, or any writings be-
longing to the offences denounced ? Likewise, to what end
and purpose the aforesaid things were done or said by the
aforesaid N. whether seriously, or in jest ? If it appears that
there was a long interval of time between the commission of
the crimes denounced, and the making the denunciation, the
inquisitor interrogates the denouncer, why he deferred so
long to come to the holy office, and did not depose before,
especially if he knew that he incurred the penalty of excom-
munication by such omission ?" He is moreover asked,
" Whether he knows any thing farther of N. which concerns
the holy office, or of any other person ? Likewise, whether
he hath at any time had any cause of hatred or enmity with
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 199
the aforesaid N. and whence it proceeded ? With what zeal,
and with what intention he comes to the holy office, and to
make denunciation ? Whether he hath denounced through
any passion of mind, ill will, hatred, or subornation ?
And he is admonished ingenuously to tell the truth." He
is especially interrogated how he came by his knowledge,
because on that principally the truth and weight of the testi-
mony depends*
When the denunciation is received ; first, it must be
read over to the denouncer, that he may add, take away, or
alter as he pleases. Secondly, he must subscribe to his de-
position ; or if he cannot write, he must at least put under it
the sign of the cross. Thirdly, he must take an oath of
secrecy.
After this, the witnesses are called on. And in this affair
all persons, even such as are not allowed in other tribunals,
are admitted. Persons excommunicated, heretics, Jews, and
infidels, wives, sons and daughters, and domestics, are allowed
as witnesses against those accused of heresy, but never for
them : those who are perjured and infamous, whores,
bawds, those under the ban, usurers, bastards, common blas-
phemers, gamesters, persons actually drunk, stage-players,
prize-fighters, apostates, traitors, even all without exception,
besides mortal enemies.
When the witnesses are summoned, first they take an
path upon the scriptures to speak the truth. After this he is
asked by the inquisitor, whether he knows, or can guess the
cause of his citation and present examination ? If he says
yes, he is interrogated how he knew it ? If he says no, he is
interrogated, whether he hath known, or doth know now any
one or more heretics, or persons suspected of heresy, or at
least is able to name any such? Whether he knows N. ?
What was the occasion of his acquaintance with him ? How
long he hath known him ? Whether he hath been used to
converse with him ? Whether he hath heard at any time any
thing from the said N. concerning the Catholic religion I
Whether ever he was in such a place with the said N. and
200 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
whether the said N. did or said there such and such hereti-
cal things, or favouring of heresy ? Who were present when
N. did or said the aforesaid things ? How often he saw them
said or done, and on what occasion, and how? Whether
the said N. spoke the aforesaid things in jest, or without
thinking, or through a slip of his tongue, or as relating the
heresies of some other person or persons ? Whether he said
any thing which ought not to have been said, through hatred
or love, or omitted and concealed somewhat that ought to
have been explained ? He is farther admonished to tell the
single truth, because, if he is detected of speaking falsely,
lie will be made to suffer the penalties, not only of perjury,
but of favouring heresy.
After this, one of the proctors of the court demands that
the criminal be taken up, and the inquisitor subscribes an
order for this purpose. When he is apprehended, he must
be well guarded, put in irons, and delivered to the jail-
keeper of the inquisition.
When the criminal is put in jail, he is brought before the
inquisitor. The place where he appears before the inquisi-
tor, is called by the Portuguese the table of the holy
oflice. At the farther end of it there is placed a crucifix,
raised up almost as high as the ceiling. In the middle of
the room there is a table. At that end which is nearest the
crucifix, sits the secretary or notary of the inquisition. The
criminal is brought in by the beadle, with his head, arms
and feet naked, and is followed by one of the keepers.
When they come to the chamber of audience, the beadle
enters first, makes a profound reverence before the inquisi-
tor, and then withdraws. After this, the criminal enters
iiloiie, who is ordered to sit down on a bench at the other
end of the table, over against the secretary. The inquisitor
sits on his right hand. On the table near the criminal lies a
missal, or book of the gospels ; and he is ordered to lay his
hand on one of them, and to swear that he will declare the
truth, and keep secrecy.
After taking this oath, of declaring the truth both of
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 201
himself and others, the inquisitor interrogates him of divers
matters. As, whether he knows why he was taken up, or
hath been informed of it by any one or more persons?
Where, when, and how he was apprehended? If he says
that he knows nothing of it, he is asked, whether he cannot
guess at the reason ? whether he knows in what prisons he
is detained ? and upon what account men are imprisoned
there ? If he says he cannot guess at the cause of his im-
prisonment, but knows that he is in the prisons of the holy
office, where heretics and persons suspected of heresy are
confined, he is told, that since he knows persons are confined
there for their profanation of religion, he ought to conclude
that he also is confined for the same reason; and must
therefore declare what he believes to be the cause of his
own apprehension and confinement in the prisons of the
holy office. If he says he cannot imagine what it should be,
before he is asked any other questions, he receives a gentle
admonition, and is put in mind of the lenity of the holy
office towards those who confess without forcing, and of the
rigour of justice used towards those who are obstinate.
They also compare other tribunals with the holy office, and
remind him, that in others the confession of the crime draws
after it immediate execution and punishment ; but that in
the court of the inquisition, those who confess and are peni-
tent, are treated with greater gentleness. After this, he is
admonished in writing, and told, that the ministers of the
holy office never take up any one, or are used to apprehend
any one without a just cause ; and that therefore they ear-
nestly beseech him, and command and enjoin him, exactly
to recollect and diligently to consider his actions, to examine
his conscience, and purge it from all those offences and errors
it labours under, and for which he is informed against.
After this he is asked, what race he comes of? Who
were his parents and ancestors ? that hereby he may declare
all his family. Whether any one of them was at any time
taken up by the holy office, and enjoined penance ? This
they are especially asked, who descend irom Jews, Maho-
2 B
202 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION/
metans, and sectaries. Where he was brought tip s In
what places he hath dwelt ? Whether he ever changed his
country? Why he did so, and went into another place?
With whom he conversed in the aforesaid places ; who were
his friends, and with whom he was intimate? Whether he
ever conversed with any of his acquaintance about matters
of religion, or heard them speak about religion ? In what
place, and when, and how often, and of what things or mat-
ters they conversed ?
He is moreover asked, of what profession he is, and
what employment of life he follows ? Whether he be rich
or poor ? What returns he hath, and what the expences of
his living? Then he is commanded to give an account of
his life, and to declare what he hath done from his childhood,
even to this time. And that he may declare all this, he is
asked, in what places or cities he studied, and what studies
he followed ? Who were his masters ? whose names he must
tell. What arts he learnt ? What books he hath had and
read? and whether he hath now any books treating of reli-
gion, and what ? Whether ever he hath been examined and
cited, or sued, or processed before any other tribunal, or the
tribunal of the holy inquisition, and for what causes ; and
whether he was absolved or condemned, by what judge, and
in what year ? Whether ever he was excommunicated, and
for what cause ? Whether he was afterwards absolved or
condemned, and for what reason ? Whether he hath every
year sacramentally confessed his sins, how often, and in what
church ? Then he is commanded to give the names of his
confessors, and of those from whom he hath received the
eucharist ; and especially for the ten years last past, and
more. What orations or holy prayers he recites ? Whether
he hath any enemies ? whose names he must tell, and the
reasons of their enmity.
If the criminal is persuaded by these, or by more or less
such interrogatories, openly to confess the truth, his cause is
finished, because it is immediately known what will be the
issue of it.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 203
But if after all these interrogatories the prisoner persists
in the negative, and says he doth not know why he is cited
or sent to prison, the inquisitor replies, that since it appears
from his own words, that he will not discover the truth, and
that there is no proof of his having such enmities with any
person, or that there are* no such causes of hatred as he
alledges, by which others could, or ought to be induced
slanderously, and falsely to inform against him, that there-
fore there arises the stronger suspicion, that the depositions
against him in the holy office are true. And therefore he is
beseeched and abjured, by the bowels of mercy of Christ
Jesus, to consider better and better, and ingenuously to
confess the truth, and to declare whether he hath erred in
words or deeds, in the aforesaid matter relating to the faith,
and the holy office, or rendered himself suspected to others.
If by such general interrogatories the inquisitor cannot
draw from the prisoner a confession of the crime of which he
is accused, he comes to particular interrogatories, which re-
late to the matter itself, or the crimes or heresies for which
the criminal was denounced. For instance, if he was accused
for denying purgatory, then one, two, or three days arfter his
first examination, he is again interrogated by the inquisitor,
whether he hath any thing, and what to say, besides what
he said in his other examination ? Whether he hath thought
better of the matter, and can recollect the cause of his im-
prisonment, and former examination, or hath at least any
suspicion who could accuse him to the holy office, and of
what matters ? Whether he hath heard any one discoursing
of paradise, purgatory, and hell ? What he heard concerning
that matter ? Who they were, that he heard speaking, or dis-
puting of those things ? Whether he ever discoursed of
them ? What he hath believed, and doth now believe about
purgatory ? If he answers, that his faith concerning it hath
been right, and denies any ill belief, but that.he believes as
holy mother church believes and teaches, lie is ordered to
say what the holy Roman mother church doth think and be-
lieve concerning this article.
204 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
If the prisoner knows the reason of his being; appre-
hended, and openly confesses every thing of which he hath
been accused to the inquisitor, he is commended, and encou-
raged to hope for a speedy deliverance. If he confesses
some things, but cannot guess at others, he is commended
for taking up the purpose of accusing himself, and exhorted
by the bowels of mercy of Jesus Christ to proceed, and in-
genuously to confess every thing else of which he is accused ;
that so he may experience that kindness and mercy, which
this tribunal uses towards those who manifest a real repen-
tance of their crimes by a sincere and voluntary confession.
In these examinations the inquisitors use the greatest
artifice, to draw from the prisoners confessions of those
crimes of which they are accused ; promising them favour,
if they will confess the truth. And by these flattering assur-
ances they sometimes overcome the minds of more unwary
persons ; and when they have obtained the designed end,
immediately forget them all. Of this Gonsalvius1 gives us
a remarkable instance. " In the first fire that was blown
up at Seville, anno 1558, or 1559, amongst many others who
were taken up, there was a certain pious matron with her
two virgin daughters, and her niece by her sister, who was
married. As they endured those tortures of all kinds, with
a truly manlike constancy, by which they endeavoured to
make them perfidiously betray their brethren in Christ, and
especially to accuse one another, the inquisitor at length
commanded one of the daughters to be sent for to audience.
There he discoursed with her. alone for a considerable time,
in order to comfort her, as indeed she needed it. .When
the discourse was ended, the girl was remanded to her prison.
Some days after he acted the same part again, causing her to
be brought before him several days towards the evening,
detaining her for a considerable while ; sometimes telling
her how much he was grieved for her afflictions, and then
(l) P. 82, &C.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
205
intermixing familiarly enough other pleasant and agreeable
things. All this, as the event shewed, had only this ten-
dency, that after he had persuaded the poor simple girl, that
he was really, and with a fatherly affection concerned for her
calamity, and would consult as a father what might be for
her benefit and salvation, and that of her mother and sisters,
she might wholly throw herself into his protection. After
some days spent in such familiar discourses, during which he
pretended to mourn with her over her calamity, and to shew
himself affected with her miseries, and to give her all the
proofs of his good will, in order, as far as he could, to remove
them; when he knew he had deceived the girl, he begins to per-
suade her to discover what she knew of herself, her mother,
sisters, and aunts who were not yet apprehended, promising
upon oath, that if she would faithfully discover to him all
that she knew of that affair, he would find out a method to
relieve her from all her misfortunes, and to send them all
back again to their houses. The girl, who had no very
great penetration, being thus allured by the promises and
persuasions of the father of the faith, begins to tell him some
things relating to the holy doctrine she had been taught, and
about which they used to confer with one another. When
the inquisitor had now got hold of the thread, he dextrously
endeavoured to find his way throughout the whole laby-
rinth ; oftentimes calling the girl to audience, that what she
had deposed might be taken down in a legal manner; always
persuading her, this would be the only just means to put an
end to all her evils. In the last audience he renews to her
all his promises, by which he had before assured her of her
liberty, and the like. But when the poor girl expected the
performance of them, the said inquisitor, with his followers,
finding the success of his craftiness, by which he had in part
drawn out of the girl, what before they could not extort from
her by torments, determined to put her to the torture again,
to force out of her what they thought she had yet concealed.
Accordingly she was made to suffer the most cruel part of it,
even the rack, and the torture by water ; till at last they had
206 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
squeezed out of her, as with a press, both the heresies and
accusations of persons they had been hunting after. For>
through the extremity of her torture, she accused Jier mother
and sisters, and several others, who were afterwards taken
up and tortured, and burnt alive in the same fire with the
girl."
But if they do not succeed neither with this way, the in-
quisitor permits some person or other, who is not unaccept-
able to the prisoner, to go to him, and converse with him ;
and if it be needful to feign himself still one of his own sect,
but that he abjured through fear, and discovered the truth
to the inquisitor. When he finds that the prisoner confides
in him, he comes to him again late in the evening, keeps on
a discourse with him, at length pretending it is too late to go
away, and that therefore he will stay with him all night in
the prison, that they may converse together, and the pri-
soner may be persuaded by the other's discourse to confess
to one another what they have committed. In the mean
while there are persons standing at a proper place without
the jail, to hear and to take notice of their words ; who,
when there is need, are attended by a notary.
Or else the person who thus treacherously draws out any
thing, according to his desire, from his fellow-prisoners,
prays the jail-keeper, when according to custom he is visit-
ing his prisoners, to desire that he may have an audience.
And when he goes out of his jail to give an account of his
office, he discovers not only what he heard from any of the
prisoners, but also how they received the doctrine proposed
to them ; whether with a chearful or angry countenance, and
the like ; if they refused to give them an answer, and what
they themselves think of them. And the accusations of such
a wretch they look on as the best and most unexceptionable
evidence, although the" person be otherwise one of no man-
ner of worth, credit, or regard.
They who have been lately in the prison of the inquisi-
tion in Spain and Portugal, tell us of another method they
make use of to draw a confession from the prisoners, viz.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 207
The inquisitor suborns a certain person to go and speak to
the prisoner, and to tell him he comes of himself, and of his
own accord, and to exhort him to tell the inquisitor the
truth, because he is a merciful man, and such fine tales.
This is now particularly the custom in Spain and Portugal,
as to those they call the new Christians. If the prisoner
affirms himself to be a Catholic, and denies that he is a Jew,
and is not convicted by a sufficient number of witnesses, they
suborn one to persuade him to confess. If he protests him-
self innocent, the other replies, that he also hath been in
jail, and that his protesting his innocence signified nothing.
What, had you rather dwell for ever in jail, and render your
life miserable, by being ever parted from your wife and
children, than redeem your freedom, by confessing the crime ?
By this, and other like things, the prisoners are oftentimes
persuaded to confess not only real, but fictitious crimes.
And when their constancy is thus almost overcome, the in-
quisitor commands them to be brought before him, that they
' may make him a confession of their faults.
After these examinations, if the prisoner persists in the
negative, he is admitted to his defence, and hath an advocate
or proctor appointed him, but such only as the inquisitors
allow him ; and who, as soon as ever they know the pri-
soners are criminal, bind themselves by oath to throw up
their defence. A copy of the accusation is usually given to
the prisoner, to which he must answer article by article ; and
likewise a copy of the proofs, but not of the names of the
witnesses, nor any circumstances by which they may dis-
cover who they are, for fear the witnesses should be in dan-
ger if known.
After the process is thus carried on, it is finished in this
manner : Either by absolution, if the prisoner be found
really innocent, or tli£ accusation against him not fully
proved. Not that they pronounce such person free from
heresy, but only declare that nothing is legally proved
against him, on account of which he ought to be pronounced
an heretic, or suspected of heresy ; and that therefore he is.
208 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
wholly released from his present trial and inquisition. But
if, notwithstanding this, he should afterwards be accused of
the same crime, he may be again judged and condemned for
it ; and this absolution will stand him in no stead.
If the party accused is found to be only defamed' for
heresy, and not convicted of heresy by any legal proofs, he
is not absolved, but enjoined canonical purgation. The
manner of the purgation is this : the party accused must
produce several witnesses, good and Catholic men, who must
swear by God, and the four holy gospels of God, that they
firmly believe he hath not been an heretic, or believer of
their errors ; and that he hath sworn the truth, in denying
it upon oath. If he fails in his purgation, i. e. cannot pro^
cure such a number of purgers as he is enjoined, he is
esteemed as convict, and condemned as an heretic.
If the person accused is not found guilty by his own con-
fession, or proper witnesses ; yet if he cannot make his
innocence appear plainly to the inquisitor, or if he is caught
contradicting himself, or faultering, or trembling, or sweat-
ing, or pale, or crying ; or if there be half proof of his crime,
he is put to the question or torture. And this liberty the
inquisitors sometimes shamefully abuse, by torturing the
most innocent persons; as appears by the following in-
stance.
" ZA noble lady, Joan Bohorquia, the wife of Francis
Varquius, a very eminent man, and lord of Higuera, and
daughter of Peter Garsia Xeresius, a wealthy citizen of
Seville, was apprehended, and put into the inquisition at
Seville. The occasion of her imprisonment was, that her
sister, Mary Bohorquia, a young lady of eminent piety, who
was afterwards burnt for her pious confession, had declared
in her torture that she had several times conversed with her
sister concerning her own doctrine. When she was first
imprisoned, she was about six months gone with child;
(l) Gonsalv. p. 181,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 209
upon which account she was not so straitly confined, nor
used with that cruelty which the other prisoners were treated
with, out of regard to the infant she carried in her. Eight
days after her delivery they took the child from her, and on
the fifteenth shut her close up, and made her undergo the
fate of the other prisoners, and began to manage her cause
with their usual arts and rigour. In so dreadful a calamity
she had only this comfort, that a certain pious young woman,
who was afterwards burnt for her religion by the inquisitors,
was allowed her for her companion. This young creature
was, on a certain day, carried out to her torture, and being
returned from it into her jail, she was so shaken, and had all
her limbs so miserably disjointed, that when she laid upon
her bed of rushes, it rather encreased her misery than gave
her rest, so that she could not turn herself without the most
excessive pain. In this condition, as Bohorquia had it not
in her power to shew her any, or but very little outward
kindness, she endeavoured to comfort her mind with great
tenderness. The girl had scarce began to recover from her
torture, when Bohorquia was carried out to the same exer-
cise, and was tortnred with such diabolical cruelty upon the
rack, that the rope pierced and cut into the very bones of
her arms, thighs, and legs ; and in this manner she was
brought back to prison, just ready to expire, the blood im-
mediately running out of her mouth in great plenty. Un-
doubtedly they had burst her bowels, insomuch that the
eighth day after her torture she died. And when after all
they could not procure sufficient evidence to condemn her,
though sought after and procured by all their inquisitorial
arts ; yet, as the accused person was born in that place,
where they were obliged to give some account of the affair
to the people, and indeed could not by any means dissemble
it ; in the first act of triumph appointed after her death, they
commanded her sentence to be pronounced in these words :
because this lady died in prison (without doubt suppressing
the causes of it) and was found to be innocent upon inspect-
ing and diligently examining her cause, therefore the holy
2 E
210 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
tribunal pronounces her free from all charges brought
against her by the fiscal, and absolving her from any farther
process, doth restore her both as to her innocence and repu-
tation ; and commands all her effects, which had been con-
fiscated to be restored to those to whom they of right
belonged, &c. And thus, after they had murdered her by
torture, with savage cruelty, they pronounced her inno-
cent."
After the sentence of torture is pronounced, the officers
prepare themselves to inflict it. " irrhe place of torture in
the Spanish inquisition is generally an under-ground and
very dark room, to which one enters through several doors.
There is a tribunal erected in it, in which the inquisitor,
inspector, and secretary sit. When the cartdles are lighted,
and the person to be tortured brought in, the executioner,
who was waiting for him, makes a very astonishing and
dreadful appearance. He is covered all over with a black
linen garment down to his feet, and tied close to his body.
His head and face are all hid with a long black cowl, only
two little holes being left in it for him to see through. All
this is intended to strike the miserable wretch with greater
terror in mind and body, when he sees himself going to be
tortured -by the hands of one who thus looks like the very
devil."
The degrees of torture formerly used, were principally
three : first, by stripping and binding. Secondly, by being
hoisted on the rack. Thirdly, squassation.
This stripping is performed without any regard to hu-
manity or honour, not only to men, but to women and
virgins, though the most virtuous and chaste, of whom they
have sometimes many in their prisons. For they cause them
to be stripped, even to their very shifts ; which they after-
wards take off, and then put on them straight linen drawers,
and then make their arms naked quite up to their shoulders.
(1) Gonsalv. p. 65, 66.
THE "HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 211
As to squassation, it is thus performed : the prisoner hath
his hands bound behind his back, and weights tied to his
feet, and then he is drawn up on high, till his head reaches
the very pully. He is kept hanging in this manner for some
time, that by the greatness of the weight hanging at his feet,
all his joints and limbs may be dreadfully stretched ; and on
a sudden he is let down with a jirk, by the slacking the
rope, but kept from coming quite to the ground ; by which
terrible shake his arms and legs are all disjointed, whereby
he is put to the most exquisite pain; the shock which he
receives by the sudden stop of his fall, and the weight at his
feet^ stretching his whole body more intensely and cruelly.
The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa tells
us,1 that the torture now practised in the Portuguese inqui-
sition is exceeding cruel. " In the months of November
and December, I heard everyday in "the morning the cries
and groans of those who were put to the question, which is
so very cruel, that I have seen several of both sexes who
have been ever after lame. In this tribunal they regard
neither age nor sex, nor condition of persons, but all with-
out distinction are tortured, when it is for the interest of
this tribunal."
The method of torturing, and the degree of tortures now
used in the Spanish inquisition, will be well understood
from the history of Isaac Orobio, a Jew, and doctor of phy-
sic, who was accused to the inquisition as a Jew, by a
certain Moor his servant, who had by his order before this
been whipped for thieving ; and four years after this he was
again accused by a certain enemy of his for another fact,
which would have proved him a Jew. But Orobio obsti-
nately denied that he was one. I will here give the account
of his torture > as I had it from his own mouth. After three
whole years which lie had been in jail, and several examina-
tions, and the discoverv of the crimes to him of which he
(1) C. 23.
2 E 2
212 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
was accused, in order to his confession, and his constant
denial of them, he was at length carried out of his jail, and
through several turnings brought to the place of torture.
This wa£ towards the evening. It was a large under-ground
room, arched, and the walls covered with black hangings.
The candlesticks were fastened to the wall, and the whole
room enlightened with candles placed in them. At one end
of it there was an inclosed place like a closet, where the
inquisitor and notary sat at a table ; so that the place
seemed to him as the very mansion of death, every thing
appearing so terrible and awful. Here the inquisitor again
admonished him to confess the truth, before his torments
began. When he answered he had told the truth, the
inquisitor gravely protested, that since he was so obstinate
as to suffer the torture, the holy office would be innocent, if
he should shed his blood, or even expire in his torments.
When he had said this, they put a linen garment over his
body, and drew it so very close on each side, as almost
squeezed him to death. When he was almost dying, they
slackened at once the sides of the garment ; and after he
began to breathe again, the sudden alteration put him to
the most grievous anguish and pain. W'hen he had over-
come this torture, the same admonition was repeated, that
he would confess the truth, in order to prevent farther tor-
ment. And as he persisted in his denial, they tied his
thumbs so very tight with small cords, as made the extremi-
ties of them greatly swell, and caused the blood to spurt out
from under his nails. After this he was placed with his
back against a wall, and fixed upon a little bench. Into the
wall were fastened little iron pullies, through which there
were ropes drawn, and tied round his body in several places,
and especially his arms and legs. The executioner drawing
these ropes with great violence, fastened his body with them
to the wall ; so that his hands and feet, and especially his
fingers and toes being bound so straitly with them, put him
to the most exquisite pain, and seemed to him just as though
he had been dissolving in flames. In the midst of these tor-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 213
ments, the torturer, of a sudden, drew the bench from under
him, so that the miserable wretch hung by the cords with-
out any thing to support him, and by the weight of his body
drew the knots yet much closer. After this a new kind of
torture succeeded. There was an instrument like a small
ladder, made of two upright pieces of wood, and five cross
ones sharpened before. This the torturer placed over
against him, and by a certain proper motion struck it with
great violence against both his shins; so that he received
upon each of them at once five violent strokes, which put
him to such intolerable anguish that he fainted away. After
he came to himself, they inflicted on him the last torture.
The torturer tied ropes about Orobio's wrists, and then put
those ropes about his own back, which was covered with
leather to prevent his hurting himself. Then falling back-
wards, and putting his feet up against the wall, he drew
them with all his might, till they cut through Orobio's flesh
even to the very bones ; and this torture was repeated thrice,
the ropes being tied about his arms about the distance of
two fingers breadth from the former wound, and drawn with
the same violence. But it happened, that as the ropes were
drawing the second time, they slid into the first wound;
which caused so great an effusion of blood, that he seemed
to be dying. Upon this the physician and surgeon, who are
always ready, were sent for out of a neighbouring apart-
ment, to ask their advice, whether the torture could be
continued without danger of death, lest the ecclesiastical
judges should be guilty of an irregularity , if the criminal
should die in his torments. They, who were far from being
enemies to Orobio, answered that he had strength enough
to endure the rest of the torture, and hereby preserved him
from having the tortures he had already endured repeated
on him, because his sentence was, that he should suffer them
all at one time, one after another. So that if at any time
they are forced to leave off through fear of death, all the
tortures, even those already suffered, must be successively
inflicted to satisfy the sentence. Upon this the torture
214
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
was repeated the third time, and then it ended. After this
he was bound up in his own clothes, and carried back to his
prison, and was scarce healed of his wounds in seventy days.
And inasmuch as he made no confession under his torture,
he was condemned, not as one convicted, but suspected of
Judaism, to wear for two whole years the infamous habit
called Sambenito, and after that term to perpetual banish-
ment from the kingdom of Seville.
Ernestus Eremundus Frisius,1 in his History of the Low
Country Disturbances, gives us an account from Gonsalvius,
of another kind of torture. There is a wooden bench, which
they call the wooden horse, made hollow like a trough, so
as to contain a man lying on his back at^full length ; about
the middle of which there is a round bar laid across, upon
which the back of the person is placed, so that he lies upon
the bar instead of being let into the bottom of the trough,
with his feet much higher than his head. As he is lying in
this posture, his arms, thighs, and shins are tied round with
small cords or strings, which being drawn with screws at pro-
per distances from each other, cut into the very bones, so
as to be no longer discerned.2 Besides this,3 the torturer
throws over his mouth and nostrils a thin cloth, so that he is
scarce able to breathe through them ; and in the mean while
a small stream of water like a thread, not drop by drop,
falls from on high, upon the mouth of the person lying in
this miserable condition, and so easily sinks down the thin
cloth to the bottom of his throat ; so that there is no possi-
bility of breathing, his mouth being stopped with water, and
his nostrils with the cloth ; so that the poor wretch is in the
same agony as persons ready to die, and breathing out their
last. When this cloth is drawn out of his throat, as it often
(1) P. 19.
(2) These two methods of punishment seem to be taken from the
two different forms of the antient Eculeus.
(S) Gonsalv. p. 76, 77.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 215
is, that he may answer to the questions, it is all wet with
water and blood, and is like pulling his bowels through his
mouth. There is also another kind of torture peculiar to
this tribunal, which they call the fire. They order a large
iron chafm-dish full of lighted charcoal to be brought in,
and held close to the soles of the tortured person's feet,
greased over with lard, so that the heat of the fire may more
quickly pierce through them.
This is inquisition by torture, when there is only half
full proof of their crime. However, at other times torments
are sometimes inflicted upon persons condemned to death,
as a punishment preceding that of death, j Of this we have
a remarkable instance in William Lithgow, an Englishman,
who, as he tells us in his travels, was taken up as a spy in
Mallagom, a city of Spain, and was exposed to the most
cruel torments upon the wooden horse. But when nothing
could be extorted from him, he was delivered to the inquisi-
tion as an heretic, because his journal abounded with blas-
phemies against the pope and the Virgin Mary. When he
confessed himself a Protestant before the inquisitor, he was
admonished to convert himself to the Roman church, and
was allowed eight days to deliberate on it. In the mean
while the inquisitor and Jesuits came to him often, some-
times wheedling him, sometimes threatening and reproaching
him, and sometimes arguing with him. At length they en-
deavoured to overcome his constancy by kind assurances'
and promises ; but all in vain. And therefore as he was im-
moveably fixed, he was condemned, in the beginning of
Lent, to suffer the night following eleven most cruel tor-
ments ; and after Easter to be carried privately to Granada,
there to be burnt at midnight, and his ashes to be scattered
into the air. When night came on his fetters were taken off,
then he was stripped naked, put upon his knees, and his
hands lifted up by force: after which opening his mouth
with iron instruments, they filled Ins belly with water till it
came out of his jaws. Then they tied a rope hard about
his neck, and in this condition roiled him seven times the
216 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
whole length of the room, till he was almost quite strangled.
After this they tied a small cord about both his great toes,
and hung him up thereby with his head towards the ground,
and then cut the rope about his neck, letting him remain in
this condition till all the water discharged itself out of his
mouth ; so that he was laid on the ground as just dead, and
had his irons put on him again. But beyond all expecta-
tion, and by a very singular accident, he was delivered out
of jail, escaped death, and fortunately sailed home to Eng-
land. But this method of torturing doth not belong to this
place, where we are treating only of the inquisition of a
crime not yet fully proved .
If when the person is decently tortured he confesses
nothing, he is allowed to go away free ; and if he demands
of his judges that he be cleared by sentence, they cannot
deny it him ; and they pronounce, that having diligently
examined the merits of the process, they find nothing of
the crime of which .he was accused legally proved against
him.
But if, when under the question, he confesses, it is writ-
ten in the process; after which he is carried to another
place, where he hath no view of the tortures, and there his
confession made during his torments is read over to him,
and he is interrogated several times, till the confession be
made. But here Gonsalvius observes,1 that when the pri-
soner is carried to audience, they make him pass by the door
of the room where the torture is inflicted, where the execu-
tioner shews himself on the purpose to be seen in that shape of
a devil I have described before ; that as he passes by, he
may, by seeing him, be forced to feel, as it were over again,
his past torments.
If there be very strong evidence against the criminal, if
new proofs arise, if the crime objected to him be very hei-
nous, and the discoveries against him undoubted ; if he was
(1) P. 73.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 217
not sufficiently tortured before, he may be tortured again^
but then only " when his mind and body are able to endure
it."
If he doth not persist in his first confession, and is not
sufficiently tortured, he may be put to the torture again ; not
by way of repetition, but continuation of it.
But if he persists in his confession, owns his fault, and
asks pardon of the church, he is condemned as guilty of
heresy by his own confession, but as penitent. But if he
obstinately persists in heresy, he is condemned, and delivered
over to the secular arm to be punished with death. If he
confesses any thing by torture, he must be forced to abjure it.
When a person accused of heresy is found to be only
slightly suspected of it, he is considered either as suspected
publicly or privately. If he is publicly suspected, this was
formerly the manner of his abjuration. On the preceding
Lord's day the inquisitor proclaims, that on such a day he
will make a sermon concerning the faith, commanding all to
be present at it. When the day comes, the person to abjure
is brought to the church, in which the council hath deter-
mined that he shall make his abjuration. There he is placed
upon a scaffold, erected near the altar, in the midst of the
people, and is not allowed to sit, but stands on it, that all
may see him, bare-headed, and with the keepers standing
round him. The sermon being made on the mass, to the
people and clergy there present, the inquisitor says publicly,
that the person there placed on the scaffold is suspected from
such and such appearances and actions, of the heresy that
hath been refuted in the public sermon ; and that therefore it
is fit that he should purge himself from it, by abjuring it, as
one slightly suspected. Having said this, a book of the
gospels is placed before him, on which laying his hands, he
abjures his heresy. In this oath he not only swears that he
ljplds that faith which the Roman church believes, but also
that he abjures every heresy that extols itself against the
holy Roman and apostolic church : and particularly the he-
resy of which he was slightly suspected, naming that heresy:
2 F
218 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
and that if he shall do any of the aforesaid things for the
future, he willingly submits to the penalties appointed by
law to one who thus abjures, and is ready to undergo every
penance, as well for the things he hath said and done, as for
those concerning which he is deservedly suspected of heresy,
which they shall lay on him ; and that with all his power he
will endeavour to fulfil it.
If he hath not been publicly suspected, he abjures pri-
vately after the same manner in the episcopal palace, or in-
quisitor's hall.
If he is vehemently suspected, he is placed in like manner
upon a scaffold ; and after he hath taken his oath upon the
gospels, his abjuration is delivered him in writing, to read
before all the people, if he can. If he cannot read, the
notary, or some religious, or clergyman reads it by sentences,
pausing between each till the other hath repeated it after him ;
and so on, till the whole abjuration is gone through. In this
abjuration he submits himself to the punishments due to re-
lapses, if he ever after falls into the heresy he hath abjured.
After the abjuration is made, the bishop admonishes him,
that if ever hereafter he doth, or says any thing by which it
can be proved, that he hath fallen into the heresy he hath
abjured, he will be delivered over to the secular court without
mercy. Then he injoins him penance, and commands him
to observe it ; adding this threatening, that otherwise he will
become a relapse, and may, and ought to be judged as an
impenitent. However, suspected persons, whether it be
slightly or vehemently, are not condemned to wear crosses,
nor to perpetual imprisonment, because these are the punish-
ments of penitent heretics ; though sometimes they are ordered
to wear for a while the Sambenito, according to the nature
of their offence. Ordinarily they are injoined to stand on
certain holy days in the gates of such and such churches,
holding a burning taper of such a weight in their hands, ugd
to go a certain pilgrimage ; sometimes also they are imprisoned
for a while, and afterwards disposed of as is thought proper.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 219
Gonsalvius gives us some instances of these punishments.1
c* There was at Seville a certain poor man, who daily main-
tained himself and his family by the sweat of his brow. A
certain parson detained his wife from him by violence, neither
the inquisition nor any other tribunal punishing this heinous
injury. As the poor man was one day talking about purga-
tory, with some other persons of his own circumstances, be
happened to say, rather out of rustic simplicity than any
certain design, that he truly had enough of purgatory al-
ready, by the rascally parson's violently detaining from him
his wife. This speech was reported to the good parson, and
gave him a handle to double the poor man's injury, by ac-
cusing him to the inquisitors, as having a false opinion con-
cerning purgatory. And this the holy tribunal thought more
worthy of punishment than the parson's wickedness. The
poor wretch was taken up for this trifling speech, kept in
the inquisitor's jail for two whole years, and at length being
brought in procession, was condemned to wear the Sambenito
for three years in a private jail ; and when they were expired,
to be dismissed, or kept longer in prison, as the lords inquisi-
tors should think fit. Neither did they spare the poor creature
any thing of his little substance, though they did his wife to
the parson, but adjudged all the remains of what he had
after his long imprisonment to the exchequer of the inqui-
sition.
" 2In the same procession there was also brought forth a
reputable citizen of Seville, as b eing suspected of Lutheran-
ism, with out his cloak and his hat, and carrying a wax taper
in his hand, after having exhausted his purse of 100 ducats
towards the expences of the holy tribunal, and a year's im-
prisonment in the jail of the inquisition, and having abjured
as one vehemently suspected ; only because he was found to
have said, that those immoderate expences (and on these ac-
counts the Spaniards are prodigiously extravagant) which
0) P. 192. (2) P. 195.
2 f 2
220 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
were laid out in erecting those large paper or linen buildings,
which the common people corruptly call monuments, to the
honour of Christ now in heaven, upon Holy Thursday ; and
also those which were expended on the festival of Corpus
Christi, would be more acceptable to God, if they were laid
out upon poor persons, or in placing out to good persons
poor orphan girls. Two young students1 added to the number
in that procession. One because he had written in his pocket-
book some verses made by a nameless author, so artificially,
as that the same words might be interpreted so as to contain
the highest commendation of, or reflection upon Luther.
Upon this account only, after two year's imprisonment, he
was brought forth in procession, without his hat and cloak,
carrying a wax taper ; after which he was banished for three
years from the whole country of Seville, made to abjure as
lightly suspected, and punished with a fine. The other
underwent the same censure, only for transcribing the verses
for their artful composition, excepting only that he commuted
his banishment for 100 ducats towards the expences of the holy
tribunal."
If any one informed against, confesses on oath his heresy,
but declares that he will abjure and return to the church, he
must publicly abjure in the church before all the people.
There is placed before him the book of the gospels ; be puts
off his hat, falls on his knees, and putting his hand on the book,
reads his abjuration. And from this none, though otherwise
privileged, are excepted. After this abjuration they are ab-
solved from excommunication, and reconciled to the church;
bui are injoined various punishments, or wholesome penances
hy the inquisitors at pleasure. What the punishments of
religious persons are, may be seen from the two following
instances.
Friar Marcellus de Pratis, a religious of the order of the
Minors, was condemned in Sicily by the inquisition (because
(l) P. 196.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 221
he had rashly feigned himself a saint, impeccable, confirmed
in grace, and had pronounced other scandalous and rash pro-
positions) to the gallies for three years, to be banished for two
more into such a convent of his own religion as should be
assigned him, with this addition; that he should fast every
Friday on bread and water, eat upon the ground in the refec-
tory, walk without his hat, and sit in the lowest place in the
choir and refectory, , and be perpetually deprived of his active
and passive vote, and of the faculty of hearing any persons
confessions whatsoever.
One Mary of the Annunciation, prioress of the monastery
of the Annunciation at Lisbon, a maid of thirty-two years
old, had pretended that the wounds of Christ, by the special
grace and privilege of God were imprinted on her, and shewed
thirty-two wounds made on her head, representing the marks
of those which were made by our Saviour's crown of thorns,
and blood sprinkled on her hands like a rose, the middle of
which was like a triangle, and shewed the holes of the nails
narrower on one side than the other. The same were to be
seen in her feet. Her side appeared as though it had been
laid open by the blow of a lance. When all these things
were openly shewn, it was wonderful to see how they raised
the admiration and devotion of serious and holy men, and
withal surprized and deceived them j for she did not suffer
those pretended wounds to be seen otherwise than by com-
mand of her confessor. And that absent persons might have
a great veneration for her, she affirmed, that on Thursdays
she put into the wounds a small cloth, which received the
impression of five wounds in form of a cross, that in the
middle being the largest, Upon which these cloths were sent,
with the greatest veneration, through the infinite devotion of
the faithful, to the pope, and to almost all the most venerable
and religious persons of the whole world. And as Paramus
then had the administration of the causes of faith in the king-
dom of Sicily, he saw several of those cloths, and the picture
of that woman drawn to the life ; and a book written by a
person of great authority concerning her life, sanctity, and
222 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION*.
miracles. Yea, Pope Gregory XIII. himself determined to
write letters to that wretched creature, to exhort her thereby
to persist with constancy in her course, and to perfect what
she had begun. At last the imposture was found out, that the
marks of the wounds were not real, but made with red lead ;
and that the woman's design was, when she had gained autho-
rity and credit enough, by her pretended sanctity, to recover
the kingdom of Portugal to its former state, which had legally
fallen under the power of Philip II. Upon this the following
sentence was pronounced against her by the inquisitors of Lis-
bon, December 8, anno 1588. First, she was commanded to
pass the rest of her life shut up in a convent of another order,
that was assigned to her without the city of Lisbon. Like-
wise, that from the day of pronouncing the sentence, she
should not receive the sacrament of theeucharist for the space
of five years, three Easters, and the hour of death excepted ;
or unless it were necessary to obtain any jubilee, that should
in the mean while be granted by the pope. Likewise, that on
all Wednesdays and Fridays of the whole year, when the
religious women of that convent held a chapter, she should
be whipped, whilst the psalm, u Have mercy on me O God,"
was reciting. Likewise, that she should not sit down at table
at the time of refreshment, but should eat publicly on the
pavement, all being forbidden to eat any thing she left. She
was also obliged to throw herself down at the door of the re-
fectory, that the nuns might tread on her as they came in and
went out. Likewise, that she should perpetually observe
the ecclesiastical fast, and never more be created an abbess,
nor be chosen to any other office in the convent where she had
dwelt, and that she should be always subject to the lowest of
them all. Likewise, that she should never be allowed to con-
verse with any nun without leave of the abbess. Likewise,
that all the rags marked with drops of blood, which she had
given out, her spurious relics, and her effigies describing her,
should be every where delivered to the holy inquisition ; or if
in any place there was no tribunal of the inquisition, to the
prelate, or any other person appointed. Likewise, that she
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 223
should never cover her head with the sacred veil ; and that
every Wednesday and Friday of the whole year she should ab-
stain from meat, and live only on bread and water ; and that as
often as she came into the refectory, she should pronounce
her crime with a loud voice in the presence of all the nuns.
Michael Piedrola also took upon himself for many years
the name of a prophet, boasted of dreams and revelations,
and affirmed they were revealed to him by a divine voice.
Being convicted of so great a crime, he abjured de levi, was
for ever forbid the reading of the Bible, and other holy
books, deprived of paper and ink, prohibited from writing
or receiving letters, unless such only as related to his private
affairs ; denied the liberty of disputing about the holy Scrip-
ture, as well in writing as in discourse ; and finally, com-
manded to l)e thrown into jail, and there pass the remainder
of his life.
Another punishment of heretics who abjure, is the con-
fiscation of all their effects. And this confiscation is made
with such rigour, that the inquisition orders the exchequer to
seize on not only the effects of the persons condemned, but
also all others administered by them, although it evidently
appears that they belong to others. The inquisition at Seville
gives a remarkable instance of this kind.
" Nicholas Burton, an Englishman, a person remarkable for
his piety, was apprehended by the inquisition of Seville, and
afterwards burnt for his immoveable perseverance in the con-
fession of his faith, and detestation of their impiety. When
he was first seized, all hik effects and merchandizes, upon ac-
count of which he came to Spain, where, according to the
custom of the inquisition, sequestered. Amongst these were
many other merchandizes, which were consigned to him as
factor, according to the custom of merchants, by another
English merchant dwelling in London. This merchant, upon
hearing that his factor was imprisoned, and his effects seized
on, sent one John Frontom, as his attorney into Spain, with
proper instruments to recover his goods. His attorney accord-
ingly went to Seville : and haying laid before the holy tribunal
224 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
the instruments, and all other necessary writings, demanded,
that the goods should be delivered to him. The lords answered
that the affair must be managed in writing, and that he must
choose himself an advocate (undoubtedly to prolong the suit)
and out of their great goodness appointed him one, to draw
up for him his petitions, and all other instruments which were
to be offered to the holy tribunal; for every one of which they
exorbitantly took from him eight reals, although he received
no more advantage from them, than if they had never been
drawn at all. Frontom waited for three or four whole months,
twice every day, viz. in the morning, and after dinner, at the
gates of the inquisitor's palace, praying and beseeching, on his
bended knees, the lords inquisitors, that his affair might be
expedited ; and especially the Lord Bishop of Tarraco, who
was then chief inquisitor at Seville, that he, in virtue of his
supreme authority, would command his effects to be restored
to him. But the prey was too large and rich to be easily re-
covered. After he had spent four whole months in fruitless
prayers and intreaties, he was answered, that there was need
of some other writings from England, more ample than those
he had brought before, in order to the recovery of the effects.
Upon this the Englishman immediately returns to London, and
procures the instruments of fuller credit which they demanded,
comes back with them to Seville, and laid them before the
holy tribunal. The lords put off his answer, pretending they
were hindered by more important affairs. They repeated this
answer to him every day, and so put him off for four whole
months longer. When his money was almost spent, and he
still continued earnestly to press the dispatch of his affair, they
referred him to the bishop. The bishop, when consulted, said
he was but one, and that the expediting the matter belonged
also to the other inquisitors ; and by thus shifting the fault
from one to the other, there was no appearance of an end of
the suit. But at length being overcome by his importunity,
they fixed on a certain day to dispatch him. And the dis-
patch was this : the licentiate Gascus, one of the inquisitors, a
man well skilled in the frauds of the inquisition, commands
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION* 225
him to come to him after dinner. The Englishman was
pleased with this message, and went to him about evening, be-
lieving that they began to think in good earnest of restoring
him his effects, and carrying him to Mr. Burton the prisoner,
in order to make up the account ; having heard the inquisitors
often say, though he did not know their real meaning, that it
was necessary that he and the prisoner should confer together.
When he came, they commanded the jail-keeper to clap him
up in such a particular prison, which they named to him*
The poor Englishman believed at first that he was to be
brought to Burton to settle the account ; but soon found him-
self a prisoner in a dark dungeon, contrary to his expectation,
and that he had quite mistaken the matter. After three or
four days they brought him to an audience ; and when the
Englishman demanded that the inquisitors should restore his
effects to him, they well knowing that it would agree perfectly
with their usual arts, without any other preface, command
him to recite his Ave Mary. He simply repeated it after this
manner: i Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is Jesus the fruit
of thy womb. Amen.' All was taken down in writing, and
without mentioning a word about the festoring his effects (for
there was no need of it) they commanded him back to his
jail, and commenced an action against him for an heretic, be-
cause he had not repeated the Ave Mary according to the
manner of the church of Rome, and had left off in a sus-
pected place, and ought to have added, c Holy Mary, mother
of God, pray for us sinners ;' by omitting which conclusion,
he plainly discovered that he did not approve the intercession
of the saints. And thus at last, upon this righteous pretence,
he was detained a prisoner many days. After this he wa&
brought forth in procession, wearing an habit; all his prin-
cipal's goods for which he had been suing being confiscated,
and he himself condemned to a year's imprisonment. "
Besides this confiscation of effects, they enjoin them whole*
some penances ; such as fastings, prayers, alms, the frequent
2 g
226 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
use of the sacraments of penance, and the cucharist ; and,
finally, pilgrimages to certain places.
Some penances are honarary, attended with infamy to
those who do them. Such are, walking in procession without
shoes, in their breeches and shirt, and to receive therein pub-
lic discipline by the bishop or priest; to be expelled the
church, and to stand before the gates of the great church upon
solemn days, in the time of mass, with naked feet, and wear-
ing upon their cloak an halter about their neck. At this time
they only stand before the gates of the church, with a lighted
candle in their hand, during the time of solemn mass on some
holy day, as the bell is ringing to church.
Besides these, they now use the punishment of banish-
ment, of beating, and whipping with scourges or rods. Some-
times they are condemned to fines, excluded as infamous
from all public offices, prohibited from wearing silver or gold,
precious garments and ornaments, and from riding on horses
or mules with trappings, as nobles do.
But the most usual punishment of all, is their wearing
crosses upon their penitential garments, which is now fre-
quently enjoined penitents in Spain and Portugal. And this
is far from being a small punishment ; because such persons
are exposed to the scoffs and insults of all, which they are
obliged to swallow, though the most cruel in themselves, and
offered by the vilest of mankind ; for by these crosses they
are marked to all persons for heresy, or, as it is now in Spain
and Portugal, for Judaism : and being thus marked, the yare
avoided by all, and are almost excluded from all human so-
ciety.
This garment was formerly of a black and bluish colour,
like a monk's cloak, made without a cowl ; and the crosses
put on them were strait, having one arm long, and the
other across, after this manner t. Sometimes, according to
the beinousness of the offence, there were two arms across,
after this manner J. But now in Spain this garment is of a
yellow colour, tand the crosses put on it are oblique, after the
THE HISTORY OP PERSECUTION* 227
manner of St. Andrew's cross, in this form X, and are of a
red colour. This cloak the Italians call " Abitello," the
Spaniards " Sant Benito," as though it was " Sacco Benito,'1
i. e. the blessed sackcloth, because it is fit for penance, by
which we are blessed and saved. But Simancas says it is the
habit of St. Benedict.
Finally, the most grievous punishment is the being con-
demned to perpetual imprisonment, there to do wholesome pe-
nance with the bread of grief and the water of affliction. This
is usually enjoined on the believers of heretics, and such as are
difficultly brought to repentance ; or who have a long while
denied the truth during the trial, or have perjured themselves.
Besides this condemnation to perpetual imprisonment, such
persons are also enjoined other penances, viz. sometimes to
island in the habit marked with the cross at the door of such a
church, such a time, and so long, viz. on the four principal
festivals of the glorious Virgin Mary, of such a church; or
on such and such festivals, at the gates of such and such
churches. Sometimes before they are shut up in prison they
are publicly exposed, viz. being clothed with the habit of the
crosses, they are placed upon an high ladder in the gate of
some church, that they may be plainly seen by all ; where
they must stand till dinner time ; after which they must be
carried, clothed in the same habit, to the same place, at the
first ringing to vespers, and there stand till sun- set ; and these
spectacles are usually repeated on several Sundays and festi-
vals in several churches, which are particularly specified in
their sentence. But if they break prison, or do not otherwise
fulfil the penances enjoined them, they are condemned as im-
penitents, and as under the guilt of their former crimes ; and
and if they fall again into the hands of the inquisitors, they
are delivered over as impenitents to the secular court, unless
they humbly ask pardon, and profess that they will obey the
commands of the inquisitors.
However if persons remain impenitent till after sentence
is pronounced, there is no farther place for pardon. And yet
there is one instance of Stephana de Proaudo, extant in the
2g2
228 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
book of the sentences of the Thoulouse inquisition, who, being
judged an heretic the day before, and left as an heretic to the
secular court (from whence it appears that it was not then usual
for those who were left to the secular court to be burnt the
same day on which the sentence is pronounced, as is now
practised in Spain and Portugal) seeing on the following day,
viz. Monday, that the fire in which she was to be burnt was
made ready, said on that very day, that she was willing to be
converted to the Catholic faith, and to return to the ecclesias-
tical unity. And when it was doubted whether she spoke this
feignedly or sincerely, or through fear of death, and was an-
swered, that the time of mercy was elapsed, and that she
should think of the salvation of her soul, and fully discover
whatsoever she knew of herself or others concerning the fact
of heresy, which she promised to say and do, and that she
would die in the faith of the holy church of Rome ; upon this
the inquisitor and vicars of the bishop of Tholouse called a
council on the following Tuesday, and at length it was con-
cluded, that on the following Sunday she should confess the
faith of the church of Rome, recant her errors, and be carried
back to prison, where it would be proved whether her conversion
was real or pretended ; and so strictly kept, that she might not
be able to infect others with her errors. Emerick1 also gives
us an instance at Barcelona, in Catalonia, of three heretics,
impenitent, but not relapsed, who were delivered over to the
secular arm. And when one of them, who was a priest, was
put in the fire, and one of his sides somewhat burnt, he cried
to be taken out of it, because he would abjure and repent.
And he was taken out accordingly. But he was afterwards
found always to have continued in his heresy, and to have
infected many, and would not be converted ; and was there-
fore turned over again, as impenitent and relapsed, to the secu-
lar arm, and burnt.
The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa,2 gives
us another instance of a very rich new Christian, whose
(l) P. 204. (2) C. 38,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 229
name was Lewis Pezoa, who, with his whole family, had
been accused of secret Judaism, by some of his enemies ; and
who, with his wife, two sons and one daughter, and some
other relations that lived with him, were all thrown into the
jail of the inquisition. He denied the crime of which he was
accused, and well refuted it : and demanded that the witnesses
who had deposed against him might be discovered to him,
that he mi Hit convict them of falsehood. But he could ob-
tain nothing, and was condemned as a negative, to be deli-
vered over to the arm of the secular court ; which sentence
was made known to him fifteen days before it was pronounced.
The Duke of Cadaval, an intimate friend of the Duke d'Ave-
ira, inquisitor general, had made strict inquiry how his
affair was like to turn. And understanding by the inquisitor
general, that unless he confessed before his going out of
prison he could not escape the fire, because he had been
legally convicted, he continued to entreat the inquisitor gene-
ral, till he had obtained a promise from him, that if he could
persuade Pezoa to confess, even after sentence pronounced, and
his procession in the act of faith, he should not die, though
it was contrary to the laws and customs of an act of faith.
Upon that solemn day therefore, on which the act of faith was
to be held, he went with some of his own friends, and some that
were Pezoa's, to the gate of the inquisition, to prevail with
him, if possible, to confess. He came out in the proces-
sion, wearing the infamous Samarre, and on his head the
Caroch, or infamous mitre. His friends, with many tears,
besought him in the name of the Duke de Cadoval, and by
all that was dear to him, that he would preserve his life ; and
intimated to him, that if he would confess and repent, the
said duke had obtained his life from the inquisitor general,
and would give him more than he had lost. But all in vain ;
Pezoa continually protesting himself innocent, and that the
crime itself was falsely invented by his enemies, who sought
his destruction. When the procession was ended, and the
act of faith almost finished, the sentences of those who were
condemned to certain penances having been read, and on the
230 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
approach of evening the sentences of those who were to be
delivered over to the secular court being begun to be read, his
friends repeated their intreaties, by which at last they over-
came his constancy, so that desiring an audience, and rising
up that he might be heard, he said, " Come then, let us go
and confess the crimes I am falsely accused of, and thereby
gratify the desires of my friends." And having confessed his
crime, he was remanded to jail. Two years after he was sent
to Evora, and in the act of faith walked in procession, wear-
ing the Samarre, on which was painted the (ire inverted, ac-
cording to the usual custom of the Portuguese inquisition ;
and after five years more that he was detained in the jail of
the inquisition, he was condemned to the gallies for five years.
If the person accused is found a relapse by his own con-
fession, he cannot escape death, even though he is penitent.
If he be in holy orders, he is first degraded. After sentence
is pronounced against him, lie is delivered to the secular arm,
with this clause added to his sentence by the inquisitors:
" Nevertheless, we earnestly beseech the said secular arm, that
he will moderate his sentence against you, so as to prevent the
effusion of blood, or danger of death:" Thus adding hypo-
crisy and insult to their devilish barbarity.
If the person accused be an impenitent heretick, but not
relapsed, he is kept in chains in close imprisonment, that he
may not escape, or infect others ; and in the mean while all
methods must be used for his conversion. They send clergy-
men to instruct him, and to put him in mind of the pains of
hell-fire. If this will not do, they keep him in chains for a
year or more, in a close, hard jail, that his constancy may be
overcome by the misery of his imprisonment. If this doth
not move him, they use him in a little kinder manner, and
promise him mercy, if he will repent. If they cannot thus pre-
vail with him, they suffer his wife and children, and little ones,
and his other relations, to come to him, and break his con-
stancy. But if after all he persists in his heresy, he is burnt
alive.
If the -person accused be found guilty of heresy by the
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 231
evidence of the fact, or legal witnesses, and yet doth not con-
fess, but persists in the negative ; after having been kept in
jail for a year, he must be delivered over to the secular arm.
So that if it should happen that he is accused by false witnes-
ses, and is really innocent, the miserable wretch, though falsely
condemned, is delivered to the power of the secular court, to
be burnt alive; nor is it lawful for him, without the commis-
sion of mortal sin, as the Roman doctors think, to save his life,
by falsely confessing a crime he hath not committed ; and there-
fore it is the duty of the divines and confessors, who comfort
such a negative, and attend on him to his punishment, to per-
suade him to discover the truth ; but to caution him by all
means not to acknowledge a crime he hath not committed, to
avoid temporal death • and to put him in remembrance, that
if he patiently endures this injury and punishment, he will be
crowned as a martyr.
It is however evident, if the practice of the Portugal inqui-
sition be considered, that the inquisitors are not so very soli-
citous about the eternal salvation of those they condemn, as
they are to consult their own honour by the criminals confes-
sions even of false crimes. Of this we have a remarkable in^
stance, of a noble Portugueze, descended from the race of the
new Christians, who was accused of Judaism. But as he did
most firmly deny the crime objected to him, nothing was
omitted that might persuade him to a confession of it ; for he
was not only promised his life, but the restitution of all his
effects, if he would confess, and threatened with a cruel death
if he persisted in the negative. But when all this was to no
purpose, the inquisitor general, who had some respect for him,
endeavoured to overcome his constancy by wheedling, and
other arguments ; but when he constantly refused to confess
himself guilty of a crime he had not committed, the inquisitor
general being at last provoked by his firmness, said, " What
then do you mean ? Do you think thai we will suffer our-
selves to be charged with a lie ? And having said this, he
went off. When the act of faith drew near, the sentence of
death was pronounced astainst him, and a confessor allowed
232 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
him to prepare him for death. But at last he sunk under th<?
fear of his approaching dreadful punishment, and by confes-
sing on the very day of the act of faith the crime falsely fastened
on him, he escaped death ; but all his estate was confiscated,
and he himself condemned for five years to the gallics.
If the person accused is a fugitive, after waiting for his
appearance a competent time, he is cited to appear on such a
day in the cathedral of such a diocese, and the citation fixed
on the gates of the church. If he doth not appear, he is com-
plained of for contumacy, and accused in form. When this
is done, and the crime appears, sentence is pronounced against
the criminal ; and if the information against him be for heresy,
he is declared an obstinate heretic, and left as such to the
secular arm. This sentence is pronounced before all the peo-
ple, and the statue or image of the absent person publicly-
produced, and carried in procession ; on which is a super-
scription, containing his name and surname; which statue is
delivered to the secular power, and by him burnt. Thus
Luther's statue was burnt, together with his books, at the
Command of Pope Leo X. by the Bishop of Ascoli.
The inquisitors also proceed against the dead. If there
be full proof against him of having been an heretic, his me-
mory is declared infamous, and his heirs, and other possessors*
deprived of his effects ; and finally, his bones dug out of
their grave, and publicly burnt. Thus Wickliff's body and
bones were ordered to be dug up and burnt, by the council of
Constance : Bucer and Fagius, by Cardinal Pool, at Cam-
bridge ; and the wife of Peter Martyr, by Brookes, Bishop
of Gloucester, at Oxford ; whose body they buried in a dung-
hill. And thus Mark Antony de Dominis, Archbishop of
Spalato, was condemned after his death fofc heresy ; and the
inquisitors agreed that the sarhe punishments should h& ex-
ecuted upon his dead body, as would have been on himself
had he been alive.
Having taken this resolution, the twenty-first day of De-
cember, anno 1624, was appointed for the pronouncing sen-
tence. Early in the morning of it, so vast a multitude had
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 233
got together to St. Mary supra Minervam, where they gene-
rally give these religious shews, that they were forced not
only to shut up, but to guard the gates with armed men ; and
the great area before the church was so prodigiously thronged,
that there was scarce room for the cardinals themselves to pass.
The middle aisle of the church, from the first to the fourth pil-
lar, was boarded in, with boards above the height of a tall
man. At the upper and lower end of it there were gates,
guarded by Switzers. On each side there were scaffolds, run-
ning the whole length of the inclosure ; in which were seats
for the cardinals and other prelates, and other conveniences,
to receive the courtiers and other noblemen standing or sitting.
On the right hand, coming in, the sacred council presided ;
on the left hand were placed the inferior officers of the holy
inquisition, the governor of the city, and his officials. Before
the pulpit was to be seen the picture of Mark Anthony, drawn
in colours, covered with a black common garment, holding a
clergyman's cap in his hand, with his name, sirname, and
archiepiscopal dignity, which formerly he had borne, in-
scribed upon it, together with a wooden chest bedaubed with
pitch, in which the dead body was inclosed. The rest of the
church was filled with citizens, and a great many foreigners ;
the number of whom was at that time larger, because the ju-
bilee that was at hand had brought them from all parts to the
city, that they might be present at the opening of the sacred
gates.
Things being thus disposed, a certain parson mounted the
pulpit, and with a shrill voice, which rung through all the
parts of the spacious church, and in the vulgar language,
that the common people might understand him, read over a
summary of the process, and the sentence by which the car-
dinals inquisitors general, specially deputed for the affair by
the pope, pronouuced Mark Anthony, as a relapse into heresy,
to have incurred all the censures and penalties appointed to
relapsed heretics by the sacred canons, and papal constitu-
tions ; and declared him to be deprived of all honours, pre-
rogatives, and ecclesiastical dignities, condemned his memory,
2 H
234 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
and cast him out of the ecclesiastical court, delivered over his
dead body and effigies into the power of the governor of the
city, that he might inllict on it the punishment due, according^
to the rule and practice of the church. And finally, they
commanded his impious and heretical writings to be publicly
burnt, and declared all his effects to be forfeited to the ex-
chequer of the holy inquisition. After this sentence was read,
the governor of the city and his officers threw the corpse, effi-
gies, and aforesaid writings into a cart, and carried them into
the Campo Fiore, a great multitude of people following after.
When they came there, the dead body, which as yet in all
its members was whole and entire, was raised out of the chest
as far as the bottom of the breast, and shewn from on high to
the vast concourse of people that stood round about ; and was
afterwards, with the effigies and bundle of his books, thrown
into the pile prepared for the purpose, and there burnt.
And finally, in order to beget in the common people a greater
abhorrence of the crime of heresy, they usually pull down and
level with the ground the houses or dwellings in which heretics
hold their conventicles, the ground on which they stood being
sprinkled over with salt, and certain curses and imprecations
uttered over it. And that there may be a perpetual monument
of its infamy, a pillar or stone, four or five feet high, is
erected in the said ground, with large characters on it, con-
taining the name and owner of the house, shewing the reason
of its demolition, and the reign of what pope, emperor or
king, the matter was transacted.
The whole of this horrid affair is concluded by what they
call " An Act of Faith ;" which is performed after this man-
ner. When the inquisitor is determined to pronounce the
sentences of certain criminals, lie fixes on some Lord's-day or
festival to perform this solemnity. But they take aire that it
be not Advent Sunday, or in Lent, or a very solemn day,
such as the Nativity of our Lord, Easter^ and the like ; be-
cause it is not decent that the sermons on those days should be
suspended, but that every one should go to his own parish
church. A, certain .Sunday or festival therefore being ap-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 235
pointed, the parsons of Ml the churches of that city or place,
in which this solemnity is to be performed, do, by command
of the bishop and inquisitor, when they have done preaching-,
publicly intimate to the clergy and people, that the inquisitor
will, in such a church, hold a general sermon concerning the
faith ; and tliey promise, in the name of the pope, the usual in-
dulgence of forty days, to all who will come and see, and hear
the tilings which are there to be transacted. They take care
to give the same notice in the houses of those religious, who
commonly preach the word of God ; and that their superiors
should be told, that because the inquisitor will in such^a church
make a general sermon concerning the faith, therefore he sus-
pends all other sermons, that every superior may send four or
two friars, as he thinks tit, to be present at the sermon, and
the pronouncing the sentences. This solemnity was formerly
called " A. general Sermon concerning the Faith j" but it is
now called, " An Act of Faith."' And in this, great numbers
of persons, sometimes one or two hundred, are brought forth
in public procession to various kinds of penances and punish-
ments, all wearing the most horrible babits. They choose fes-
tivals for this solemnity, because then there is a greater conflu-
ence of people gathered together to see the torments and
punishments of the criminals, that from hence they may learn
to fear, and be kept from the commission of evil. And indeed
as this act of faith is now celebrated in Spain and Portugal,
the solemnity is truly an horrible and tremendous spectacle,
in which every thing is designedly made use of that may
strike terror ; for this reason, as they say, that they may
hereby give some representation and image of the future judg-
ment.
If any one, whether an impenitent or relapsed heretic is
to be delivered to the secular court, the bishop and inquisitor
give notice to the principal magistrate of the secular court^
that he must come such a day and hour with his attendants
to such a street or place, to receive a certain heretic or relapsed
person out of their court, whom they will deliver to him :
and that he must give public notice the same day, or the day
2 h 2
236 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
before in the morning, by the crier, throughout the city, in
all the usual places and streets, that on such a day and hour?
and in such a place, the inquisitor will make a sermon for the
faith ; and that the bishop and inquisitor will condemn a cer-
tain heretic or relapse, by delivering him to the secular court.
In most of the tribunals of the inquisition, especially in
Spain, it is a remarkable custom they use, viz. on the day
before the acts of faith, solemnly to carry a bush to the place
of the fire, with the flames of which they are consumed, who
deserve the punishment of being burnt. This is not without
its mysteries ; for the burning, and not consuming bush, sig-
nifies the indefectible splendour of the church, which burns,
and is not consumed ; and besides this, it signifies mercy to-
wards the penitent, and severity towards the froward and
obstinate. And farther, it represents how the inquisitors
defend the vineyard of the church, wounding with the
thorns of the bush, and burning up with flames all who en-
deavour to bring heresies into the harvest of the Lord's field.
And finally, it points out the obstinacy and frowardness of
heretics, which must rather be broken and bent, like a rug-
ged and stubborn bush ; and that as the thorns and prickles of
the bush tear the garments of those who pass by, so also do
the heretics rend the seamless coat of Christ.
Besides, the day before the criminals are brought out of
jail to the public act of faith, they part with their hair and
their beard ; by which the inquisitors represent, that heretics
return to that condition in which they were born, viz, become
in£ the children of wrath.
All things being thus prepared to celebrate this act of faith,
all the prisoners, on that very day which is appointed for the
celebration of it are clothed with that habit which they must
wear in the public procession. But the custom in this matter
is not altogether the same in all the inquisitions. In that of
Goa, the jail-keepers, about midnight, go into the cells of the
prisoners, bringing a burning lamp to each of them, and a
black garment striped with white lines ; and also a pair of
breeches, which reach down to their ankles ; both which they
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 237
order them to put on. The black habit is given them in token
of grief and repentance. About two o'clock the keepers re-
turn, and carry the prisoners^ into a long gallery, where they
are all placed in a certain order against the wall, no one of
them being permitted to speak a word, or mutter, or move ;
so that they stand immoveable, like statues, nor is there the
least motion of any one of their members to be seen, except of
their eyes. All these are such as have confessed their fault,
and have declared themselves willing to return by penance to
the bosom of the church of Rome. To every one of these is
given a habit to put over their black garment. Penitent here-
tics, or such as are vehemently suspected, receive the blessed
sackcloth, commonly called the Sambenito ; which, as we~
have before related, is of a saffron colour, and on which there
is put the cross of St. Andrew, of a red colour, on the back
and on the breast. Vile and abject persons are made to wear
the infamous mitre for more outrageous blasphemies, which
carries in it a representation of infamy, denoting that they are
as it were bankrupts of heavenly riches. The same mitre
also is put on Polygamists, who are hereby shewn to have
joined themselves to two churches ; and finally, such as are
convicted of magic ; but what is signified hereby as to them,
I have not been able to discover. The others, whose offences
are slighter, have no other garment besides the black one.
Every one hath given him an extinguished taper, and a rope
about their neck; which rope and extinguished taper have their
signification, as we shall afterwards shew. The women are
placed in a separate gallery from the men, and are there
cloathed with the black habit, and kept till they are brought
forth in public procession.
As to those who are designed for the fire, viz. such as have
confessed their heresy, and are impenitent, and negatives, viz.
such who are convicted by a sufficient number of witnesses,
and yet deny their crime, and finally such as are relapsed,
they are all carried into a room separate from the others.
Their dress is different from that of the others. They are
however, clothed with the sackcloth, or kind of mantle,, which
238 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
some call the Sambenito, others the Samarra or Samaretta.
And though it be of the same make as the Sambenito is, yet it
hath different marks, is of a black colour, hath flames painted
on it, and sometimes the condemned heretic himself, painted
to the life, in the midst of the flames. Sometimes also they
paint on it devils thrusting the poor heretic into hell. Other
things may also be put on it ; and all this is done, that per-
sons may be deterred from heresy by this horrible spectacle.
As to those, who after sentence pronounced, do at length*
confess their crime, and convert* hern selves, before they go out
of jail, they are, if not relapses, clothed with the Samarra, on
which the fire is painted, sending the flames downward, which
the Portugueze call Fogo revollo ; as though you should say,
ihe fire inverted. Besides this, they have paper mitres put on
them, made in the shape of a cone; on which also devils and
flames arc painted, which the Spaniards and Portugueze call
in their language Carocha. All of them being thus clothed,
according to the nature of their crime, are allowed to sit down
on the ground, waiting for fresh orders. Those of them who
are to be burnt, are carried into a neighbouring apartment,
where they have confessors always with them, to prepare
them for death, and convert them to the faith of the church
of Rome. «
About four o'clock the officers give bread and figs to all of
them, that they may somewhat satisfy their hunger during
the celebration of the act of faith. About sun-rising, the great
bell of the cathedral church tolls ; by which, as the usual sig-
nal of an act of faith, all persons are gathered together to this
miserable spectacle. The more reputable and principal men
of the city meet at the house of the inquisition, and are as it
were the sureties of the criminals, one of them walking by the
side of each criminal in the procession, which they think is
no small honour to them. Matters being thus prepared, the
inquisitor places himself near the gate of the house of the in-
quisition, attended by the notary of the holy office. Here he
reads over in order the names of all the criminals ; beginning
with those whose offences are least, and ending with those
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 239
whose crimes are greatest. The criminals march out each in
their order, with naked feet, and wearing the habit that was
put on them in jail. As every one goes out, the notary reads
the name of his surety, who walks by his side in the proces-
sion. The Dominican monks march first; who have this
honour granted them, because Dorainick, the founder of their
order, was also the inventor of the inquisition. The banner
of the holy office is carried before them ; in which the image
of Dominick is curiously wrought in needle-work, holding a
sword in one hand, and in the other a branch of olive, with
these words "justice and mercy." Then follow the criminals
with their sureties. When all those whose crimes are too
slight to be punished with death, are gone out into procession,
then comes the crucifix ; after which follow those who are led
out to the punishment of death. The crucifix being in th«
midst of these, hath its face turned to those who walk before, to
denote the mercy of the holy office to those who are saved from
the death they had deserved ; and the back part of it to those
who come after, to denote that they have no grace or mercy
to expect : for all things in this office are mysterious. Finally,
they carry out the statues of those who have died in heresy,
habited in the Samarra ; and also the bones dug out of the
graves, shut up in black chests, upon which devils and flames
are painted ail over, that they may be burnt to ashes.
1 When they have thus marched round the principal
streets of the city, that all may behold them, they at length
(1) Dr. Geddes gives us the following account of this procession in
Portugal, p. 442. " In the morning of the day the prisoners are all
brought into a great hall, where they have the hahits put on they are.
to wear in the procession, which begins to come out of the inquisition
about nine o'clock in the morning.
" The first in the procession are the Dominicans, who carry the
standard of the inquisition, which on the one side hath their founder,
Dominick's picture, and on the other side the cross, betwixt an olive-
tree and a sword, with this motto, " Justitia & Miserecordia." Next
after the Dominicans come the penitents ; some with Benitoes, and some
without, according to the nature of their crimes. They are all in black
240 THE HISTORY OP PERSECUTION.
enter the church, where the sermon concerning the faith is t&
be preached. At Goa this is usually the church of the Domi*
coats without sleeves, and bare-tooted, with a wax-candle in their
hi.nds. Next come the penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt,
who over their black coat have flames painted, with their points turned
downwards, to signify their having been saved, but so as by fire. Next
come the negative and relapsed, that are to be burnt, with flames upon
their habit, pointing upward ; and next come those who profess doc-
trines contrary to the faith of the Roman church, and who, beside^
flames on their habit pointing upward, have their picture, which is
drawn two or three days before upon their breasts, with dogs, serpents,
and devils, all with open mouths painted about it.
" Pegna, a famous Spanish inquisitor, calls this procession, * Hor-
rendum ac tremendum Spectaculum,' and so it is in truth, there being
something in the looks of all the prisoners, besides those that are to
be burnt, that is ghastly and disconsolate, beyond what can be imagined;
and in the eyes and countenances of those that are to be burnt, there
is something that looks fierce and eager.
" The prisoners that are to be burnt alive, besides a Familiar, which
all the rest have, have a Jesuit on each hand of them, who are con-
tinually preaching to them to abjure their heresies; but if they offer
to speak any thing, in defence of the doctrines they are going to suffer
death for professing, they are immediately gagged, and not suffered to
speak a word more.
" This I saw done to a prisoner, presently after he came out of the
gates of the inquisition, upon his having looked up to the suu, which
he had not seen before in several years, and cried out in a rapture,
* How is it possible for people that behold that glorious body, to wor-
ship any Being but him that created it ?' After the prisoners comes a
troop of familiars on horseback, and after them the inquisitors and other
officers of the court upon mules; and last of all comes the inquisitor
general upon a white horse, led by two men, with a black hat, and a
green hatband, and attended by all the nobles, that are not employed
as familiars in the procession.
" In the Terreiro de Paco, which may be as far from the inquisition
as Whitehall is from Temple-bar, there is a scaffold erected, which may
hold two or three thousand people ; at the one end sit the inquisitors,
and at the other end the prisoners, and in the same order as they walked
in the procession ; those that are to be burnt being seated on the high-
est benches behind the rest, which may be ten feet above the floor of
thescagbkL"
THE HISTORY Of PERSECUTION, 241
nicans, and sometimes that of the Franciscans. The great
altar is covered over with cloth, upon which are placed six
silver candlesticks, with burning tapers. On each side of it is
erected something like a throne ; that on the right hand for
the inquisitor and his counsellors ; that on the left for the vice-
roy and his officers. Over against the great altar there is
another lesser one, on which several missals are placed ; and
from thence even to the gate of the church is made a long gal-
lery, three feet wide, full of seats, in which the criminals are
placed, with their sureties, in the order in which they enter
the church ; so that those who enter first, and have offended
least, are nearest the altar.
After this comes in the inquisitor, surrounded with his col-
leagues, and places himself on the right hand throne ; and then
the viceroy, with his attendants, seats himself on the throne
on the left hand. The crucifix is put on the altar in the midst
of the six candlesticks. Then the sermon is preached concern-
ing the faith, and the office of the inquisition. This honour
is generally given to the Dominicans. The author of the
History of the Inquisition at Goa tells us, that in the act of
faith, in which he walked in procession, cloathed with the
Sambenito, the provincial of the Augustines preached the ser-
mon, which lasted half an hour, and treated of the inquisi-
tion, which he compared to Noah's ark; but said it was
preferable to Noah's ark in this, because that the animals
which entered it came out of it after the flood with the same
brutal nature they carried in; whereas the inquisition so far
changes the persons who are detained in it, that though they
enter cruel as wolves, and fierce as lions, they come out of it
meek as lambs.
When the sermon is ended, two readers, one after another,
mount the same pulpit, and with a loud voice publicly read
over the sentences of all the criminals, and the punishment
to which they are condemned. He whose sentence is to be
read over, is brought by an officer into the middle of the gal-
lery, holding an extinguished taper in his hand, and there
stands till his sentence is read through ; and because all the
2 i
242 TP HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
criminals are supposed to have incurred the greater excom-
munication, when any one's sentence is read over, he is
brought to the foot of the altar, where, upon his knees, and
his hands placed on the missale, he waits till so many are
brought there, as there are missals upon the altar. Then the
reader for some time defers the reading of the sentences ; and
after he hath admonished those who are kneeling at the altar,,
that they should recite with him with their heart and mouth
the confession of faith he is to read over to them, he reads
it with a loud voice ; and when it is ended, they all take their
former places. Then the reader reads over the sentences of
the rest, and the same order is observed till all the sentences are
gone through.
When the sentences of all those, who are freed from the
punishment of death by the mercy of the office, are read
througl>, the inquisitor rises from his throne, puts on his
sacred vestments, and being attended with about twenty priests,
comes down into the middle of the church, and there saying
over some solemn prayers,1 which may be seen2 in the Book
of the Sentences of the Thoulouse Inquisition, he absolves
them all from the ex-communication they were under, giving
each of them a blow by the hands of those priests who. attend
him.
Farther, when the inquisitors absolve and reconcile peni-
tents at an act of faith, they make use of rods, to admonish
(1) Verse. Lord save thy men servants, and thine handmaids.
Resp. Those, 0 my God, who trust in thee.
Verse. Tlve Lord be with you.
Respx And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
Grant, we beseech thee, 0 Lord, to these thy men servants, and-
thine handmaids, the worthy fruit of penance ; that they may be ren-
dered innocent in the sight of thy holy church, from the integrity of
which they have strayed through sin, by obtaining the pardon of their
sins, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(2) Fol. 149..
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 243
them, that by heresy they have fallen from the favour of God
into his anger and fury. Hence Paramus1 advises such peni-
tents to consider, with how great indulgence they are treated,
because they are only whipped on the shoulders ; that they
may go away, and being mindful of the divine fury, may
take heed not to relapse for the future. The rod also points
out the judiciary power which the inquisitors exercise over
impious heretics, and those who are suspected of heresy ; be-
cause a rod is the measure by which any one's deserts are mea-
sured, and therefore penitents are whipped with rods according
to the nature of their offence, whereby their faults are weighed
and measured. Farther, the inquisitors use rods, because, as
a rod at the beginning is in its nature flexible, tender and
soft, but at last hard, blunt and stiff', so the inquisitors are
soft and tender, whilst penitents offending through frailty and
ignorance, reconcile themselves : but if heretics do afterwards
suffer themfelves to be overcome by wickedness, and fall again
into the crimes they have committed, then they whip them,
and strike them severely, even to the burning of the fire.
And, finally, they use rods to establish and support the weak
in the faith ; because rods are a very apt instrument to sup-
port and confirm the lame and weak.
The penitents carry in their hands extinguished wax tapers,
whilst the inquisitors reconcile them : to intimate, that the light
of the faith hath been altogether extinguished in their minds
by the sin of heresy and infidelity. These tapers are made of
wax, whereby heretics profess (Risum teneatis) that their
hearts have been so -melted, through the heat of Concupi-
scence, as to receive various sects ; and that as wax grows
hard by moisture, but melts by dryness and warmth, so they
being hardened by the moisture of carnal delights, have re-
mained in infidelity, but are melted as wax, and converted by
the dryness and heat of tribulation and penance enjoined them.
And finally, the cotton of the taper, and the wax of which
(l) L. 2. t. 3. c,
2 i 2
244 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
it is made, and the fire with which it is lighted after absolu-
tion, shadow forth that the heretics have denied faith, hope,
and charity. But when the tapers are lighted after their re-
conciliation, this signifies that they profess they will demon-
strate, by the light of good works, the faith which they have
recovered.
Farther, those who are reconciled are sprinkled with holy
water and hyssop, in token, that being brought out of the
power of darkness, and having turned the eyes of their minds
to the true light of the faith, they are to remain free from all
the snares and calumnies of the devil, that they may serve
God with greater freedom.
Farther, he who hath offended against the Catholic faith
which he had professed, hath a rope tied round his neck, to
signify, that the inward parts of such a person being possessed
by the craftiness of the devil, have been given to such sins, of
which his outward parts being tied with ropes, give a very
evident sign and proof. And though they are reconciled after
abjuration of their heresy, yet they walk with a rope tied about
their necks ; that they may come out as witnesses against
themselves, and may be examples to others, that they may
turn their eyes to the inward spots of the mind.
During this action, every one of the prisoners eats the
bread and figs in the church, which were given them by the
officers of the inquisition in jail.
When this ceremony is performed, the inquisitor goes
back to his place ; after which the sentences of those who are
appointed to death are read over ; the conclusion of which is,
that the inquisition can shew them no favour, upon account of
their being relapsed, or impenitent, and that therefore it de-
livers them over to the arm of the secular court, which they
earnestly intreat so to moderate their punishment, as to prevent
the effusion of blood, and danger of death. When those
last words are read, one of the officers of the holy office gives
each of them a blow on the breast, by which he signifies that
they are left by the inquisition ; upon which one of the officers
of secular justice comes to them and claims them. If any of
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 245
them are in holy orders, they are degraded, and deprived of
all their orders, before they are delivered to the secular arm.
After this they read the sentences against the dead. At last
these miserable wretches are brought to the secular judge, to
hear the sentence of death ; and when they come before
him, they are severally asked in what religion they desire to
die ? Their crime is never inquired into ; because it is not the
office of the secular magistrate to ask, whether those, who
are condemned by the inquisition, are criminal ? He is to pre-
suppose them guilty, and his duty is to inflict the punishment
appointed by law upon those who commit such crimes, of
which they are pronounced guilty by the inquisition. When
they have answered this one single question, they are soon
after tied to a stake, round about which there is placed a pile
of wood. Those who answer- that they will die Catholics, are
first strangled ; but those who say they will die Jews or here-
tics, are burnt alive. ' As these are leading out to punishment,
the rest arc carried back without any order, by their sureties^
(1) I cannot here avoid giving my reader a more particular account
of this execution from Dr. Geddes, who himself was once present at it.
His words are these: " The prisoners are no sooner in the hands of the
civil magistrate, than they are loaded with chains, hefore the eyes of the
inquisitors; and being carried first to the secular jail, are, within an hour
or two, brought from thence, before the lord chief justice, who without
knowing any thing of their particular crimes, or of the evidence that
was against them, asks them, one. by one, in what religion they do in-
tend to die? If they answer, that they will die in the communion of
the Church of Rome, they are condemned by him, to be carried forth-
with to the place of execution, and there to be first strangled, and
afterwards burnt to ashes. But if they say, they will die in the Pro-
testant, or in any other faith that is contrary to the Roman, they are
then sentenced by hjm, to be carried forthwith to the place of execu-
tion, and there to be burnt alive.
** At the place of execution, whicl? at Lisbon is the Ribera, there
are so many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a good
quantity of dry furze about them. The stakes of the professed, as the
inquisitors call them, may be about four yards high, and have a small
board, whereon the prisoner is to be seated, within half a yard of the
246 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
to the jail of the inquisition. This is the celebration of an
act of faith in Portugal ; or rather in that part of India which
is subject to the Portugueze, as a Frenchman hath described it
in his History of the Inquisition at Goa, who himself walked
in procession at an act of faith, wearing the infamous Sambe-
top. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the
professed go up a ladder, betwixt the two Jesuits, which have attended
them all day ; and when they are come even with the forementioned
board, they turn about to the people, and the Jesuits spend near a quar-
ter of an hour in exhorting the professed to be reconciled to the Church
of Rome; which, if they refuse to be, the Jesuits come down, and the
executioner ascends, and having turned the professed off' the ladder upon
the seat, and chained their bodies close to the stake, he leaves them;
and the Jesuits go up lo them a second time, to renew their exhortation
to them, and at parting tell them, that they leave them to the devil,
who is standing at their elhow to receive their souls, and carry them
with him into the flames of hell-fire, so soon as they are out of their
bodies. Upon this a great shout is raised, and as soon as the Jesuits are
off the ladders, the cry is, * Let the dogs beards, let the dogs beards be
made;' which is done by thrusting flaming furzes, fastened to a long
pole, against their faces. And this inhumanity is commonly continued
until their faces are burnt to a coal, and is always accompanied with
such loud acclamations of joy, as are not to be heard upon any other oc-
casion ; a bull feast, or a farce, being dull entertainments, to the using
a professed heretic thus inhumanly.
" The professed beards having been thus made, or trimmed, as they
call it in jollity, fire is set to the furze, which are at the bottom of the
stake, and above which the professed are chained so high, that the top
of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat they sit on ; and if
there happens to be a wind, to which that place is much exposed, it sel-
dom reaches so high as their knees : so that though, if there be a calm,
the professed are commonly dead in about half an hour after the furze
is set on fire; yet, if the weather prove windy, they are not after that
dead in an hour and a half, or two hours, and so are really roasted, and
not burnt to death. But though, out of hell, there cannot possibly be
a more lamentable spectacle than this, being joined with the sufferers
(so long as they are able to speak) crying out, * Miserecordia por amor
de Dios, Mercy for the love of God ;' yet it is beheld by people of both
sexes, and all ages, with such transports of joy and satisfaction, as are
not on any other occasion to be met with." Dr. Gedde's Tracts, vol.
I. p. 447, &c. Thus far Dr. Geddes.,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 247
nito, and who accurately observed and described all the cir-
cumstances of it.
The method of celebrating an act of faith in Spain, is
When Mr. Wilcox, afterwards the Right Reverend the Lord
Bishop of Rochester, was minister to the English factory at Lisbon, he
sent the following letter to the then Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Gilbert
Burnet, dated at Lisbon, Jan. 15, 1706, N. S. which I publish by his
lordship's allowance and approbation, and -which abundantly confirms
the foregoing account.
" My Lord,
" In obedience to your lordship's commands, of the iOth ult. I have
nere sent all that was printed concerning the last Auto de Fe. I saw
the whole process, which -was agreeable to what is published by Lim-
borch and others upon that subject. Of the five persons condemned,
there were but four burnt ; Antonio Tavanes, by an unusual reprieve,
being saved after the procession. Hey tor Dias, and Maria Pinteyra,
were burnt alive, and the other two first strangled. The execution was
very cruel. The woman was alive in the flames half an hour, and the
man above an hour. The present king and his brothers were seated at
a window so near, as to be addressed to a considerable time, in very
moving terms, by the man as he was burning. But though the favour
he begged was only a few more faggots, yet he was not able to obtain
it. Those which are burnt alive here, are seated on a bench twelve
feet high, fastened to a pole, and above six feet higher than the faggots.
The wind being a little fresh, the man's hinder parts were perfectly
wasted ; and as he turned himself, his ribs opened before he left speak-
ing, the fire being recruited as it wasted, to keep him just in the same
degree of heat. But aJl his entreaties could not procure him a larger
allowance of wood to shorten his misery and dispatch him." Thus far
the Letter.
How diabolical a religion must that be, which thus divests men of
all the sentiments of humanity and compassion, and hardens them
against all the miseries and sufferings of their fellow creatures ! For as
Dr. Geddes observes, ibid. p. 450, " That the reader rnay not think
that this inhuman joy is the effect of a natural cruelty that is in these
peoples disposition, and not of the spirit of their religion, he may rest
assured, that all public malefactors besides heretics, have their violent
deaths no where more tenderly lamented than amongst the same people,
and even when there is nothing in the manner of their deaths that
appears inhuman or cruel,'*
24$
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
somewhat different. For whereas at Goa the banner, which
they carry before the procession hath the picture of Dominick
wrought in it, Paramus says, that in Spain the cross is the
banner of the inquisition, which is carried before them ; and
tediously tells us of several mysteries signified by the cross, of
which I will here give a short summary.
The cross is the beginning and end of ail acts of the inqui-
sition ; and by it is represented, that the tribunal of the inqui-
sition is a representation of that supreme and final tribunal, in
which the sign of the cross shall appear before the Lord Christ,
coming to the judgement of the world with great majesty and
glory. Farther, it denotes the war which the inquisition
wages against heretics, and the victory which they gain over
the enemies of the orthodox faith ; because the inquisitors are
appointed the conquerors of heretical pravity , and captains for
the defence of religion, who keep watch at the castle of the
inquisition for the Christian faith, repair it when going to ruin,
restore it when tumbled down, and preserve it when restored
in its ancient, flourishing and vigorous state.
The inquisition uses a green cross, that it may be more
conveniently distinguished from those crosses of other colours,
which are used by the Christian commonwealth ; and espe-
cially that it may be shadowed out, that all things usually
signified by greenness, belong to the inquisition. For instance,
greenness denotes stability and eternity; it is a grateful, plea-
sant, and attractive colour to the eyes, and finally is a sign of
victory and triumph. Hereby is shadowed forth, that the
inquisitors of heretical pravity vigilantly preserve the stability
of the church; and that heretics are attracted by the green
cross, so that they cannot escape the judgment of this tribunal,
and by beholding it are brought to the tender bosom of
mother church, and drawn to repentance, and the sincerity of
the faith.
The banner of the inquisition hath a green cross in a field
sable, adorned on the right hand with a branch of green olive,
and brandishing on the left a drawn sword, with this motto
round about the scutcheon, " Exsurge, Domine, & judica
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 249
causam tuam ; Psal. Ixxiv. 22. Arise, O Lord, and plead
thy own cause." The branch of green olive denotes the same
as the green cross. But the branch of olive is on the right
hand of the cross, and the sword on the left, to shew that in
the inquisition mercy is mixed with justice ; and the meaning
of this mixture they derive from the ark of the tabernacle, in
which, together with the tables, there was the rod and the
manna, the rod of severity, and the manna of sweetness ; as
though the rod of Aaron which blossomed, was the rod with
which j udges command criminals to be whipped. The branch
of olive at the right hand, signifies that .nothing ought to be
so strictly regarded by the inquisitors as mercy and clemency?
which the olive most wonderfully shadows forth, which hath
branches always green, and which endures storms much longer
than any other trees, and if buried under water, is not so soon
destroyed, nor doth so easily lose its verdure. The drawn
sword brandishing on the left, points out that the inquisitors,
after having tried in vain all methods of mercy, do then as it
were unwillingly come to the use and drawings of the sword,
which was given by God for the punishment of offenders.
The field of sable, in the midst of which the green cross is
placed, intimates the repentance of the criminals, and the sor*
row they conceive on account of their sins ; whichj however,
the green mitigates with the hope of pardon.
The motto round the scutcheon, " Exsurge Domine," &c.
marks out that the inquisitors, in expectation of the coming
of the Lord, do in the mean while punish the wicked, that
they may deter others, and defend the good.
But besides these things, there are other differences be-
tween the celebration of an act of faith in India and Spain.
Gonsalvius tells us, * this solemn procession began in this man-
ner at Seville. " In the first place went some school-boys,
brought out of a certain college in which boys were taught,
which they commonly call the house of teaching, who strike
(i) P. 135.
2 K
250 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
an awe upon others by their habit, singing, and order, in
which they are kept by certain clergymen cloathed in surplices.
They walk along singing the litanies of the saints, repeating
them alternately, the chorus alternately answering,1 " Ora
pro nobis." After these follow the prisoners themselves, com-
monly called penitentiab, disposed as it were into several
classes in this order. Next after the children walk those who
are convicted of lesser faults. The tokens of their guilt are
usually unlighted candles, halters about their necks, wooden
bits, and paper mitres. They walk with their heads unco-
vered, that the mitre may not be concealed ; and after the
manner of slaves, without their cloak. Those who excel
others in birth, or riches, follow after those who arc meaner.
Next to these march those who are cloathed with the Sam-
benito's, or military mantles, marked across with the red cross ;
the same order being observed as above, according to the
distinction of the persons. Those who are defiled in holy or-
ders, as they are superior in dignity, so also are they in their
place or rank in the procession. After these comes the third
and last class, viz. of those who are appointed for the fire.
Every prisoner is attended by two armed familiars, for his safe
custody, one on each side of him ; besides which, those who
are to die have two monks or theatins, as they call them,
walking by them. The whole council of the city, consisting
of the alguazils, jurors, the judges of twenty-four degrees,
the great officers of the court, the regent and viceroy himself,
or his deputy, who are followed by a great number of nobility
on horseback, immediately follow the classes of the prisoners,
who, recording to the custom of a triumph, ought certainly
to march first. After these comes the ecclesiastical order, the
clergy, beneficed persons, and curates walking first. Next
after them walk the whole chapter of the principal church,
which they commonly call the cabild of the greater church.
Then the abbots and priors of the monks orders, with their
(1) Pray for us.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 251
attendants . All these walk before the holy tribunal to do honour
to it, because, on that day, it openly triumphs. Between
these and the next after there is a space left empty, in which
the fiscal of the inquisition, who hath had no small share in
gaining that victory to the holy tribunal, walks as standard-
bearer in truly military pomp, displaying and opening the
standard made of red damask silk. This standard is most cu-
riously embroidered, having on one side of it the arms of that
pope who granted the inquisition, with his name written at
large ; and on the other those of King Ferdinand, who first
brought it into Spain. Every thing in it is wrought with silk,
gold, and purple. Upon the very point of this banner is
fastened a silver crucifix washed over with gold, of great va-
lue ; to which the superstitious multitude pay a peculiar vene-
ration, for this reason only, because it belongs to the inquisi-
tion. At length come the fathers of the faith themselves, with
a slow pace, and profound gravity, truly triumphing, as be-
comes the principal generals of that victory. After them
come all the familiars of the holy inquisition on horseback.
Then an innumerable company of the common people and mob,
without any order or character. In this pomp they march
from the jail of the inquisition to the high and magnificent
scaffold, which is built of wood, in the noblest and most capa-
cious street of the city, for shewing the penitents to public
view, and for hearing their sentences. On this scaffold they
make them sit in the same order as they marched. There
is also another scaffold almost as large as the former, over
against it, in which is erected the tribunal of the lords in-
quisitors ; where they sit in their inquisitorial, and almost
divine majesty, attended with all that grandeur in which they
came."
The king (if present) the queen and the whole court, and
also the legates, and all the nobility of Spain, generally
honour this solemnity with their presence. The seat of the
inquisitor general is like a tribunal, raised above the king's.
When all are seated in their places, they begin with clebrating
mass ; but when the priest who officiates is come to about the
2 k 2
252 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
middle of the service, he leaves the altar, and goes back to
his proper place. Then the supreme inquisitor comes down
from the scaffold, robed in all his ornaments ; and making his
reverences before the altar, ascends by several steps to the king,
attended by some of the officers of the inquisition, who
carry the crucifix and gospels, and the book in which is
contained the oath, by which the king obliges himself to
protect the Catholic faith, to the extirpation of heresies, and
the defence of the inquisition. The king standing bare-
headed, having on one side of him the constable of Castile,
or one of the grandees of Spain, who holds up the sword of
state, swears that he will keep the oath, which is publicly
read over to him, by one of the members of the royal coun-
cil ; and remains in the same posture, till the supreme inqui-
sitor goes back to his place. After this one of the secretaries
of the inquisition goes into a desk, reads over the like oath,
and takes it from the council, and the whole assembly. Then
all the several sentences are read over, and the soleriinity
sometimes lasts till nine o'clock in the evening.
Criminals penitent and reconciled, and brought out in
public procession, are carried back to their former jails in the
holy office the same day in which the sentences are pronounced
against .them, and the day following are brought to an audi-
ence of the inquisitors, and are admonished of those things
which are enjoined them by their sentences, and how griev-
ously they will be punished, unless they humbly do the pe-
nances assigned them. After this, they send every one to the
place to which his sentence ordered him. Those who are
condemned to the gallies, are sent to the jails of the secular
judges. Some are whipped through the principal streets of
the city, and sometimes receive two hundred lashes. Others
wear the infamous Sambenito ; some every day, others must
appear in them only Sundays and holy days. But in these
things every one observes the custom of his own inquisition.
In the inquisition at Goa this is the method. Before the pri-
soners are dismissed, they are carried from jail to some other
house, where they are every day instructed in the doctrines
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 253
and rites of the Church of Rome ; and when they arc dis-
missed, every one hath a writing given him, containing the
penances enjoined them ; to which is added a command, that
every one shall exactly keep secret every thing he hath seen,
said or heard, and all the transactions relating to him, whether
at the table, or in other places of the holy office. And to
this secrecy every prisoner binds himself by a solemn oath.
The day after this solemnity also, the effigies of those
condemned to death, painted to the life, are carried to the
dominican's church, and there hung up to be viewed by all.
The custom in this matter is described by Ludovicus a Para-
mo.1 i4 There is another monument of infamy, which,
though vulgarly called by the Spaniards Sambenito, yet is
not a garment, but a cloth affixed to the walls of the churches
for perpetual infamy in the parishes where they lived. On
this cloth is written the name and surname of the criminal,
and the business he carried on is also expressed. If he dis-
covers any farther, they add another little piece to the cloth
to prevent doubt, describing his country, and oftentimes also
the parents and grandfathers of the condemned person.
" In some of these cloths may be read who were the pa-
rents of the criminals, of what race they were ; whether they
were married, or if married women, whose wives they were;
whether lately recovered to the Christian religion, from the
Jewish law and Mahometan sect. Finally, the cause of their
penance is declared according to the nature of their crime,
viz. that he was an arch-heretic, a dogmatist, a declared he-
retic, an heretical apostate, a feigned penitent, negative and
obstinate, an impenitent and relapsed heretic, a Lutheran,
Anabaptist, Calvinist, Martianist heretic, even though they
died before condemnation. Besides this inscription, there is
also painted the mark which is usually put on living penitents,
as is above explained. In the ancient cloths, which have not
yet been repaired, one may see an upright cross. Besides
(1) L. 2/ t. 2. c. 5. n. 9, 10, 11.
254 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
these already mentioned, other things may be seen in them ;
for in some the person and crime is omitted, and this one word
only written without the picture, < Combustus,' burnt. On
the clothes of such as arc reconciled, this word only, without
any cross or mark, ' Rcconciliatus,' reconciled. Sometimes
the date of the year is wanting, Sometimes the flames are
painted without any inscription, so that the criminal cannot
possibly be known. However, .these monuments of infamy
and disgrace are not to be fixed up to render those infamous,
who are reconciled during the time of indulgence and grace.
Tor as it was agreed with them, that they should not wear
such infamous habits, nor be cloathed with them during the
time of their reconciliation, it would be contrary to reason and
justice to hang them up, because it would be wholly to destroy
the favour granted them. This constitution is observed in all
the kingdoms and dominions of the King of Spain, except in
Sicily ; where, in the year 1543, when the licentiate Cervera
was inquisitor there, there was a very great commotion at Pa-
lermo, when the people rose against the holy inquisition, and
tore off the infamous cloths from the walls of the church
dedicated to St. Dominic, with so great a fury and rage, that
they could never, to this day, fix them up again upon the
v, alls either of that, or any other church."
Thus far we have described the method of proceeding
observed in the inquisition ; and if we attentively consider it,
and compare it with the usual method of proceeding in all
other courts, we shall find it to be a series and connection of
injustice and cruelties, and subversive of all laws, both divine
and human.
The Papists usually recommend to their own people this
tribunal as an holy one, and call the inquisition the holy office.
Ikrt if we consider it thoroughly, we shall find it is all dis-
guise, by which they endeavour to palliate and cover over the
villany and injustice of this court. I will not now undertake
to shew that the causes which are managed before this tribu-
nal are not subject to human judgment, but belong to the tri-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 255
bnnal of God, and his son Christ : for God only, the supreme
Lord of all, who can save, and can destroy, can prescribe
the laws of salvation and damnation : He only, as omniscient
and searcher of hearts, can pronounce an infallible judgment
of -every one's faith, which lies concealed in his mind, and
which he may dissemble by words or actions, and hath admit-
ted no man as partner with himself in this power. From
hence it evidently follows, that it is a sacrilegious violation of
the divine majesty and laws, in that the pope of Rome arro-
gates to himself the judgment of the faith, prescribes laws of
believing to the faithful, erects the tribunal of an inquisition,
sends every where inquisitors as judges delegated by him,
who, in his name, and by a power granted by him, are to
inquire into the faith of all, and punish those who are not in
all things obedient to the pope. Nor will I here examine that
villainous doctrine, by which they teach that heretics are to be
deprived of all power, so that faith is not to be kept with them;
subjects are not bound by their oath of allegiance and fidelity;
that the husband or wife, for the heresy of either, is freed
from the law's of matrimony, and even children from obedi-
ence to their parents : for it is fully evident, that this doctrine
subverts all laws, divine and human.
I will only, in a few words, represent the principal iniquities
and instances of injustice of this tribunal ; in which, as to the
reason and method of proceeding in favour of the faith, it
differs from the laws and customs of all other courts; whereby
things evidently unjust in other tribunals, are in this accounted
just. I shall not indeed mention all, but the chief only, and
most remarkable instances, as specimens of the rest.
I. The first is, that the inquisitors, by publishing an edict
of the faith, oblige all, under the penalty of excommunica-
tion, to inform before them of every one of whom they sus-
pect of heresy, for the slightest cause ; so that not only a re-
lation is bound to accuse his relation, a brother his brother,
and by this information to bring him into danger of beinp-
burnt, the most horrible of all punishments ; but even a wife
256 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
her husband : yea, what destroys all the laws of nature, a son*
♦according to the opinion of many doctors, is bound to inform
against his father, if a secret heretic.
II. A second instance of injustice, is their condemning a
person defamed only for heresy, to make canonical purgation,
i. e. to purge himself with seven, more or less, compurgators ;
so that if he fails in one, two or three, he is accounted guilty.
for thus the life and torture of any one depends on the will
and pleasure of another.
III. A third is, that in this office every one, though ex-
cluded by other courts, is admitted for a witness, a mortal
enemy only excepted.
IV. To this may be added a fourth, that the names of the
witnesses are not shewn to the prisoner, nor is any circum-
stance discovered to him by which he can come to the know-
ledge of the witnesses.
V. A fifth instance of injustice is, that if two unexcep-
tionable witnesses, who jet must ever be liable to exception, be-
cause unknown to the criminal, testify of different facts, yea,
sometimes if there be one only, yea, if but a mere report,
they think it enough to order to the torture.
VI. A sixth instance is, that they would have persons in-
formed against become their own accusers : for as soon as ever
any one is thrown into jail, he is bound by an oath to declare
the truth.
VII. A seventh instance is, that the inquisitors use vari-
ous arts to draw out a confession from the prisoners, by mak-
ing them deceitful promises, which, when they have got the
confession, they do not believe themselves obliged to fulfil ;
that so the prisoner being destitute of all human assistance and
comfort, and seeing no end to his miseries, may, through
the art and fraud of the inquisitor, have no possible way left
to defend himself, and yet in the mean while these wretches
affect the appearance of justice, and grant the criminals an
advocate and proctor to manage their cause. But in this the
prisoner is miserably deceived.
VIII. And this is an eighth specimen of their injustice,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 257
because the advocate granted to him is given him only to be-
tray him. For he may not choose such an advocate as he
himself approves of, nor is it lawful for the advocate to defend
the prisoner, unless he would be accounted as a favourer of he-
resy ; but the inquisition itself assigns him his advocate, bound
to them by an oath, whose principal business is to persuade
the criminal to confess the crime he is accused of, not to
use any methods of defence not practised in the court of the
inquisition, and immediately to quit his defence, if he cannot
defend him according to the laws of the inquisition.
IX. A ninth is, that when the crimes cannot be proved
against the prisoner, he is not absolved from the crime of which
he is accused, but only from prosecution ; and all the decla-
ration that is made, is chat the crime against him is not proved
by proper witnesses ; and this sentence is never taken for an ad-
judged case. So that he who is once informed against to the
inquisition, although he be innocent, and his crime cannot be
proved according to the received manner of the inquisition,
though indeed, according to that manner, all crimes of which
there is but the least suspicion maybe easily proved; yet he is ne-
ver blotted out of the inquisitors book or index, but his name is
there preserved in perpetual remembrance of his being a sus-
pected person, that if he should happen to be informed against
for heresy at any other time, these latter informations added to
the former may amount to a real proof; and that although he
is dismissed from jail by the sentence of the judge, he may
never be able to live in safety, but that being always suspected
by the inquisitor, he may be arrested for the same crime which
ought to have been forgotten, upon the fresh information of
some vile and wicked fellow.
X. A tenth, and that not the least instance of injustice^
is their readiness to put persons to the torture, and that to
discover a secret crime, lying concealed in the mind ; yea,
that they will use the torture so much the sooner, because the
crime is more concealed than other crimes.
XI. The eleventh is, their putting persons to the torture
upon half full proof of the crime. Thi6 half full proof is
2 L
258 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
faultering, defamation, and one witness of his own knowledge,
or when the tokens are vehement and violent. All these things
are subject to the pleasure of the judge. So that if any one1
falls into the hands of a cruel inquisitor, and faulters in his
answer, or is informed against by one witness, who declares
he was present at the action or words he gives information of,
he cannot possibly escape the torture, nor consequently the
punishment of the crime he is accused of, considering the vio-
lence of the torments. Nor is this all; but as there may be
some facts occasioned not so much by heresy concealed in the
mind, as by carnal concupiscence or rashness, they will have
such to be tortured for their intention, and force them by tor-
ments to confess they had an heretical intention in their mind.
XII. A twelfth is, that when they prepare themselves for
the torture, they gravely and seriously admonish the criminal
to speak nothing but the truth, and to confess nothing that is
not agreeable to truth to avoid the tortures. By this means
they put on the appearance of sincerity, as though they sought
nothing but the naked truth, that when the torture is finished
they may be very secure that the tortured person hath confessed
a real crime, because they have seriouly and gravely admo-
nished him to say nothing contrary to truth. In the mean
while they suppose, that the crime objected against him is
real, and endeavour to force from him a confession by torture,
and threaten to double his torments unless he confesses ; so
that if he denies the crime, his torments are aggravated ; if
he confesses it, his torments are soon ended. Hence it ap-
pears, that their design is not honestly to find out the truth by
torture, but that they suppose the crime is real, although ac-
cording to the laws of the inquisition it be only half proved,
and then extort a confession of it.
XIII. A thirteenth is, that whereas in other courts the num-
ber is certainly fixed how often the torture may be repeated,
they have invented a method of torturing persons very often,
without offending against the law, which provides that the
tortures shall not be repeated above twice or thrice. If, for
instance, they make use of the lesser tortures, and the prisoner
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 259
confesses nothing, they afterwards make use of more grievous
ones, then proceed to such as are more cruel, till at different
intervals of time they have gone through all the several kinds
of tortures. And this they do not call a repetition, but only
a continuation of the torture ; so that if any one hath been se-
veral times tortured, but with a different kind of torture each
time, and hath thus at certain distances gone through all the
kinds of torture, according to the opinion of these merciful
casuists, he ought to be accounted as tortured only once.
XI V. A fourteenth is, that when they deliver condemned
persons to the secular arm, they intercede for them, that their
punishment may be so moderated as to prevent shedding of
blood, or danger of death. And in the mean while, if the
magistrate is not ready to burn the heretics, or delays the
punishment, they oblige him, under penalty of excommuni-
cation, to execute the sentence. The superstitious wretches
are afraid they should beome irregular, by delivering a crimi-
nal to the secular magistrate without intercession, and yet are
not afraid of becoming irregular, by compelling the magis-
trate under penalty of excommunication to murder those whom
they have condemned. Can any thing be more evident, than
that this is nothing more than acting a part, and an affectation
to be thought by the people to have no hand in the murder of
which they are really the authors ?
XV. The last instance I shall mention, appears in their
ridiculous process against the dead, whose relations and heirs
they cite, to appear on such a day to defend, if they can and
will, the memory of the dead. Whereas they themselves
have made it a law, that if any one appears in defence of an
heretic, he shall be accounted as a favourer of heretics him-
self, and condemned as such, and have no advocate or procu-
rator to defend himself. So that they cite all persons to defend
the memory of the dead, and yet deter all persons from such
defence by a most grievous punishment, appointed against
the favourers of heretics. So that all this is like their inter-
cession for criminals, mere imposture and sham. Then they
provide an advocate to manage the cause, bound to them un-
2 k 2
260 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
der an oath, and lie publicly declares he cannot defend the
memory of the deceased. So that as no one undertakes his
defence, the accusations against him are reckoned just, the
proofs legal, and the deceased is condemned for heresy. But
what greater instance of injustice can there be, than to con-
demn a person as convicted, whose. defence no one dares un-
dertake, without running the hazard of his fortune and life.
If any one considers these things, which I have mentioned
as specimens only, he will find no sanctity in the court of the
inquisition ; but must acknowledge, that in the whole method
of proceeding there is nothing but injustice, fraud, impostures,
and the most accursed hypocrisy ; by which the inquisitors,
under the feigned pretence of sanctity, endeavour to disguise
the villany of their proceedings, that so they may maintain
their dominion over the miserable common people, and keep
them all in subjection to themselves. And though they do
every thing that is wicked and vile, yet they would have all
adore them for the venerable character of sanctity.
It is needless to mention here more instances of their cru-
elty : I shall say all in a few words. The miseries of the jail,
in which the prisoners are generally confined by themselves
for several years, shut up in darkness, without being allowed
any human converse, are so great, the cruelty of their tor-
ments so severe, and their punishments so exquisite, that they
greatly exceed the cruelty of all other courts : for persons are
not only burnt alive, but their mouths gagged, so that they
have not the liberty to groan or cry out in those most horrible
tortures ; and by thus stopping up their mouths, they are in
such an agony, as that they are almost strangled. But their
cruelty towards the penitent and converted is most detestable :
for whereas the church ought, with open arms, to embrace
penitents, in imitation of the shepherd who carried the lost
sheep on his shoulders, and brought it home to the sheepfold,
these wretches enjoin the most grievous punishments on those
whose lives they spare, which with them are only wholesome
penances. For they condemn them either to wear the infa«
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 261
mous Sambenito, or to imprisonment, or the gallies, whereby
their very life is oftentimes a punishment to them ; whilst
others are denied the very hopes of life, especially the relapsed,
who are condemned to death without mercy, though they
convert themselves. And yet the sacraments are given to those
who are reconciled to the church when they desire it ; and
thus before they are put to death they become members of the
church, put in a state of salvation, and by the priests them-
selves most certainly assured of an heavenly crown. Can
there be any greater cruelty, and more abhorrent from the
spirit of Christianity, than to punish with death an erroneous
person who repents, detests his error, and is now reconciled
to the church ? But the ecclesiastical sanctions must be satis-
fied, and the authority of the church preserved entire, though
the laws of Jesus Christ, and the commands of the gospel are
trampled under foot.
All these iniquities are committed according to the very
laws of the inquisition. Many things are indeed, in the exe-
cution of this office, left to the pleasure of the inquisitors,
which power they often villainously abuse, as appears from
their daily practice, and innumerable instances ; for it was the
common complaint of all nations against the inquisition, what
Thuanus tells us1 was the complaint of the Neapolitans:
" That the perverse and preposterous form of trials increased
the horror, because it was contrary to natural equity, and to
every legal method in carrying on that jurisdiction. Add to
this the inhumanity of their tortures, by which they violently
extorted from the miserable and innocent criminals, that they
might deliver themselves from their torment, whatsoever tha
delegated judges would have them confess, though generally
contrary to truth. And for this reason it was justly said, that
it was invented not for the sake of defending religion, which
the primitive church had provided for by a quite different
method5 but that by this means they might strip all men of
(1) Hist. I. 3.
262 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
their fortunes, and bring innocent persons into danger of being
destroyed."
The papists indeed glory, that the inquisition is the most
certain remedy to extirpate heresies. And because the inqui-
sition is so effectual a method to extirpate heresies, Ludovi-
cus a Paramo1 gathers from thence that it was ordained for
this purpose by the most wise providence of God. But what
is really unjust in itself, and carried on by unjust methods,
cannot have God for its author ; nor is success any argument
that the inquisition is from God. The first inquiry is, whe-
ther it be suitable to the nature of the Christian doctrine ? If
it be not, it is then unjust and anti-christian. Many things
are unrighteously undertaken, by men, and accomplished by
violence and cruelty, by which innocence is oppressed ; which,
although God in his just and wise counsel permits, he is far
from approving. Even in Japan, a cruel persecution hath
extinguished the Christian religion, as preached by the Roman
priests ; so that the Roman Catholic religion is equally extin-
guished there by the violence of persecutions, as those doc-
trines are in Spain, which are contrary to the church of Rome,
and which they render odious by the infamous name of heresy.
And yet they will not allow that any just argument can be
drawn from hence, to prove that that persecution was given
by divine Providence, as a most effectual remedy for the ex-
tirpation of their religion. If other parties of Christian^
would use the same diligence and cruelty of inquisition against
them, I may venture to affirm, that they themselves could not
withstand it ; but that within a few years the popish religion
would be extinguished in all Protestant countries, and scarce
a single person left who would dare to profess it. But God
forbid that the Christian religion should ever be propagated
this way, which doth not consist in a feigned and hypocritical
profession, but in a sincere and undissembled faith. And
therefore, as no one ought to assume to himself the power of
(]) L. 2. t. 3. c. 4, 5.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 263
judging concerning it, but God the searcher of hearts, to him
only let us leave it to pass the true judgment concerning every
man's belief. Let us in the mean while detest the tyranny of
the papists ; and strive to reduce those who, in our judgment,
hold errors, into the way of truth, by the good offices of
charity and benevolence, without arrogating to ourselves a
judgment over the consciences of others. And out of a seri-
ous regard to the last great day of judgment, let us approve
our consciences to God : and every one of us, expecting from
his mercy an equitable and righteous judgment, pray without
ceasing: "Arise, O Lord, and plead thy own
CAUSE."
OF THE PRESENT STATE OF
THE INQUISITION AT GOA,
Taken from the Rev. Dr. Buchanan's " Christian
Researches in Asia."
THE ROMISH CHRISTIANS IN INDIA.
In every age of the Church of Rome there have been indi-
viduals, of an enlightened piety, who derived their religion
not from cc the commandments of men," but from the doc-
trines of the Bible. There are at this day, in India and in
England, members of that communion, who deserve the af-
fection and respect of all good men ; and whose cultivated
minds will arraign the corruptions of their own religion, which
the author is about to describe, more severely than he will
permit himself to do. He is indeed prepared to speak of
Roman Catholics with as much liberality as perhaps any Pro-
testant has ever attempted on Christian principles : for he is
acquainted with individuals, whose unaffected piety he con-
264 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
siders a reproach to a great body of Protestants, even of the
strictest sort. It is indeed painful to say any thing which
may seem to feeling and noble minds ungenerous ; but those
enlightened persons, whose good opinion it is desirable to pre-
serve, will themselves be pleased to see that truth is not sacrificed
to personal respect, or to a spurious candour. Their own
church sets an example of " plainness of speech" in the as-
sertion of those tenets which it professes, some of which must
be extremely painful to the feeling of Protestants, in their
social intercourse with Catholics ; such as, " That there is no
salvation out of the pale of the Romish church."
This exclusive character prevents concord and intimacy
between Prosestant and Catholic families. On the principles
of infidelity they can associate very easily ; but on the prin-
ciples of religion, the Protestant must ever be on the defensive ;
for the Romish church excommunicates him : and although
he must hope that some iudividuals do not maintain the tenet,
yet his uncertainty as to the fact prevents that cordiality which
he desires. Many excellent Catholics suffer unjustly in their
intercourse with Protestants, from the ancient and exclusive
articles of their own church, which they themselves neither
profess nor believe. If they will only intimate to their Pro-
testant friends, that they renounce the exclusive principle,
and that they profess the religion of the Bible, no more seems
requisite to form with such persons the sincerest friendship on
Christian principles.
At the present time we see the Romish religion in Europe
without dominion ; and hence it is viewed by the mere philo-
sopher with indifference or contempt. He is pleased to see,
that the " seven heads and the ten horns" are taken away ;
and thinks nothing of the " names of blasphemy." Rut in
the following pages, the author will have occasion to shew
what Rome is, as having dominion ; and possessing it too
within the boundaries of the British Empire,
In passing through the Romish provinces in the East,
though the author had before heard much of the Papal cor-
ruptions, he certainly did not expect to see Christianity in the
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 265
degraded state in which he found it. Of the priests it may
truly be said, that they are, in general, better acquainted
with the Veda of Brahma than with the Gospel of Christ. In
some places the doctrines of both are blended. At Aughoor,
situated between Tritchinopoly and Madura, he witnessed (in
October 1806) the Tower of Juggernaut employed to solemnize
a Christian festival. The old priest Josephus accompanied him,
when he surveyed the idolatrous car and its painted figures, and
gave him a particular account of the various ceremonies which
are performed, seemingly unconscious himself of any im-
propriety in them. The author, went with him afterwards
into the church, and seeing a book lying on the altar, opened
it ; but the reader may judge of his surprize, when he found
it was a Syriac volume, and was informed that the priest him-
self was a descendant of the Syrian Christians, and belonged
to what is now called the Syro-Roman Church, the whole ser-
vice of which is in Syriac. — Thus, by the intervention of the
papal power, are the ceremonies of Moloch consecrated in a
manner by the sacred Syriac language. What a heavy re-
sponsibility lies on Rome, for having thus corrupted and de-
graded that pure and ancient church !
While the author viewed these Christian corruptions in
different places, and in different forms, he was always referred
to the Inquisition at Goa, as the fountain-head. He had long
.cherished the hope, that he should be able to visit Goa before
he left India. His chief objects were the following :
1 . To ascertain whether the inquisition actually refused to
recognise the Bible, among the Romish churches in British
India.
2. To inquire into the state and jurisdiction of the inqui-
sition, particularly as it affected British subjects.
3. To learn what was the system of education for the
priesthood ; and
4. To examine the ancient church -libraries in Goa, which
were said to contain all the books of the first printing.
He will select from his journal in this place, chiefly what
relates to the inquisition. He had learnt from every quarter,
2 M
266 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
that this tribunal, formerly so well known for its frequent
burnings, was still in operation, though under some restric-
tion as to the publicity of its proceedings ; and that its power
extended to the extreme boundary of Hindoostan. That, in
the present civilized state of Christian nations in Europe, an
inquisition should exist at all under their authority, appeared
strange ; but that a papal tribunal of this character should
exist under the implied toleration and countenance of the
British Government ; that Christians, being subjects of the
British Empire, and inhabiting the British territories, should
be amenable to its power *and jurisdiction, was a statement
which seemed to be scarcely credible ; but, if true, a fact
which demanded the most public and solemn representation.
Goa, Convent of the Augustinians ,
Jan. 23, 1808.
6 On my arrival at Goa, I was received into the house of
Captain Schuyler, the British resident. The British force
here is commanded by Colonel Adams, of His Majesty's
78th regiment, with whom I was formerly well acquainted in
Bengal.* Next day I was introduced by these gentlemen to
the vice-roy of Goa, the Count de Cabral. I intimated
to his excellency my wish to sail up the river to Old Goa,2
(1) The forts in the harbour of Goa were then occupied by British
troops (two king's regiments, and two regiments of native infantry) to
prevent its falling into the hands of the French.
(2) There is Old and New Goa. The old city is about eight miles
up the river. The vice-roy and the chief Portuguese inhabitants re-
side at New Goa, which is at the mouth of the river, within the forts
of the harbour. The old city, where the inquisition and the churches
are, is now almost eutirely deserted by the secular Portuguese, and is
inhabited by the priests alone. The unhealthiness of the place, and
the ascendency of the priests, are the causes assigned for abandoning
the ancient city.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 267
(where the inquisition is,) to which he politely acceded. Ma-
jor Pareira, of the Portuguese establishment, who was present,
and to whom I had letters of introduction from Bengal, offered
to accompany me to the city, and to introduce me to the
archbishop of Goa, the primate of the Orient.
6 I had communicated to Colonel Adams, and to the British
resident, my purpose of enquiring into the state of the inqui-
sition. These gentlemen informed me, that I should not be
able to accomplish my design without difficulty ; since every
thing relating to the inquisition was conducted in a very secret
manner, the most respectable of 1^- lay Portuguese themselves
being ignorant of its proceedings; and that, if the priests
were to discover my object, their excessive jealousy and alarm
would prevent their communicating with me, or satisfying my
inquiries on^any subject.
' On receiving this intelligence, I perceived that it would
be necessary to proceed with caution. I was, in fact, about
to visit a republic of priests ; whose dominion had existed for
' nearly three centuries ; whose province it was tovprosecute he-
retics, and particularly tire teachers of heresy ; and from
whose authority and sentence there was no appeal in India. *
; It happened that Lieutenant Kempthorne, commander
of His Majesty's brig Diana, a distant connection of my own,
was at this time in the harbour. On his learning that I meant
to visit Old Goa, he offered to accompany me ; as did Cap-
tain Stirling, of His Majesty's 84th regiment, which is now
stationed at the forts.
6 We proceeded up the river in the British resident's barge,
accompanied by Major Pareira, who was well qualified, by a
(1) I was informed that the vice-roy of Goar'lias no authority over
the inquisition, and that he himself is liable to its censure. Were the
British government, for instance, to prefer a complaint against the
inquisition to the Portuguese government at Goa, it could obtain no
redress. By the very constitution of the inquisition, there is no power
in India which can invade its jurisdiction, or even put a question to it
on any subject.
2m2
268 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
thirty years' residence, to give information concerning local
circumstances. From him I learned that there were upwards
of two hundred churches and chapels in the province of Goa,
and upwards of two thousand priests.'
' On our arrival at the city, * it was past twelve o'clock :
all the churches were shut, and we were told that they would
not be opened again till two o'clock. I mentioned to Major
Parcira, that 1 intended to stay at Old Goa some days ; and
that I should be obliged to him to find me a place to sleep in.
He seemed surprised at this intimation, and observed that it
would be difficult for mc<4o obtain reception in any of the
churches or convents, and that there were no private houses
into which I could be admitted. I said I could sleep any
where ; 1 had two servants with me, and a travelling bed.
When he perceived that 1 was serious in my purpose, he gave
directions to a civil officer, in that place, to clear out a room
in a building which had been long uninhabited, and which was
then used as a warehouse for goods. Matters at this time pre-
sented a very gloomy appearance ; and I had thoughts of re-
turning with my companions from this inhospitable place. In
the mean time we sat down in the room I have just mentioned,
to take some refreshment, while Major Pareira went to call on
some of his friends. During this interval 1 communicated to
Lieutenant Kempthome the object of my visit. I had in my
pocket ' Dellon's Account of the Inquisition at Goa;'2 and I
(1) We entered the city by the palace gate, over which is the statue
of Vasco de Garaa, who first opened India to the view of Europe. I
had seen at Calicut, a few weeks before, the ruins of the Samorin's
Palace, in which Vasco de Gama was first received. The Samorin was
the first native prince againt whom the Europeans made war. The em-
pire of the Samorin has passed away ; and the empire of his conquerors
has passed away : and now imperial Britain exercises dominion. May
imperial Britain be prepared to give a good account of her stewardship,
when it shall be said unto her, " Thou mayest be no longer steward !"
(2) Monsier Dellon, a physician, was imprisoned in the dungeon of
the inquisition at Goa for two years, and witnessed an Auto da Fe,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 269
mentioned some particulars. While we were conversing on
the subject, the great bell began to toll ; the same which Del-
Ion observes always tolls, before day -light, on the morning of
the Auto da Fe. I did not myself ask any questions of the
people concerning the inquisition ; but Mr. Kempthorne made
inquiries for me : and he soon found out that the Santa Casa,
or Holy Office, was close to the house where we were then
sitting. The gentlemen went to the window to view the hor-
rid mansion ; and 1 could see the indignation of free and en-
lightened men arise in the countenance of the two British offi-
cers, while they contemplated a place where formerly their
own countrymen were condemned to the flames, and into
which they themselves might now suddenly be thrown, with-
out the possibility of rescue.
c At two o'clock we went out to view the churches, which
were now open for the afternoon service ; for there are regu-
lar daily masses ; and the bells began to assail the ear in every
quarter.
6 The magnificence of the churches of Goa, far exceeded
any idea I had formed from the previous description. Goa is
properly a city of churches ; and the wealth of provinces
seems to have been expended in their erection. The ancient
specimens of architecture at this place far excel any thing
that has been attempted in modern times in any other part of
the East, both in grandeur and in taste. The chapel of the
palace is built after the plan of St. Peter's at Rome, and is
said to be an accurate model of that paragon of architecture.
The church of St. Dominic, the founder of the inquisition, is
decorated with paintings of Italian masters. St. Francis
Xavier lies enshrined in a monument of exquisite art, and
his coffin is enchased with silver and precious stones. The
cathedral of Goa is worthy of one of the principal cities of
Europe ; and the church and convent of the Augustinians (in
when some heretics were burned ; at which he walked barefoot, After
his release he wrote the history of his confinement. His descriptions
are in general very accurate.
270 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
vthi&h I now reside) is a noble pile of building, situated on
an eminence, and has a magnificent appearance from afar.
< But what a contrast to all this grandeur of the churches
is the worship offered in them ! I have been present at the
service in one or other of the chapels every day since I arrived ;
and 1 seldom see a single worshipper, but the ecclesiastics.
Two rows of native priests, kneeling in order before the altar,
clothed in coarse black garments, of sickly appearance, and
vacant countenance, perform here, from day to day, their
laborious masses, seemingly unconscious of any other duty or
obligation of life.
6 The day was now far spent, and my companions were
about to leave me. While I was considering whether I should
return with them, Major Pareira said he would first introduce
me .to a priest, high, in office, and one of the most learned men
in the place. We accordingly walked to the convent of the
Augustinians, where I was presented to Joseph a Doloribus, a
man well advanced in life, of pale visage and penetrating eye,
rather of a reverend appearance, and possessing great flu-
ency of speech and urbanity of manners. At first sight he
presented the aspect of one of those acute and prudent men
of the world, the learned and respectable Italian Jesuits,
some of whom are yet found, since the demolition of their
order, reposing, in tranquil obscurity, in different parts of
the East. After half an hour's conversation in the Latin lan-
guage, during which he adverted rapidly to a variety of sub-
jects, and enquired concerning some learned men of his own
church, whom I had visited in my tour, he politely invited me
to take up my residence with him, during my stay at Old Goa.
I was highly gratified by this unexpected invitation ; but Lieu-
tenant Kempthorne did not approve of leaving me in the hands
of the Inquisitor. Fox judge of our surprise, when we disco-
vered that my learned host was one of the inquisitors of the
holy office, the second member of that august tribunal in
rank, but the first and most active agent in the business of the
department. Apartments were assigned to me in the college
adjoining the convent, next to the rooms of the inquisitor
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 271
himself; and here I have been now four days at the very
fountain head of information, in regard to those subjects which
I wished to investigate. I breakfast and dine with the inqui-
sitor almost every day, and he generally passes his evenings
in my apartment. As he considers my enquiries to be chiefly
of a literary nature, he is perfectly candid and communicative
on all subjects.
' Next day after my arrival, I was introduced by my
learned conductor to the Archbishop of Goa. We found hire
leading the Latin letters of St. Francis Xavier. On my ad-
verting to the long duration of the city of Goa, while other
cities of Europeans in India had suffered from war or revolu-
tion, the archbishop observed, that the preservation of Goa,
was owing to the prayers of St. Francis Xavier. The inqui-
sitor looked at me to see what I thought of this sentiment. I
acknowledged that Xavier was considered by the learned
among the English to have been a great man : what he wrote
himself, bespeaks him a man of learning, of original genius,
and great fortitude of mind ; but what others have written for
him, and of him, tarnished his fame, by making him the in-
ventor of fables. The archbishop signified his assent. He
afterwards conducted me into his private chapel,' which is
decorated with images of silver, and then into the Archiepis-
copal library, which possesses a valuable collection of books.
As I passed through our convent, in returning from the arch-
bishop's, I observed among the paintings in the cloisters a
portrait of the famous Alexis de Menezes, archbishop of Goa,
who held the synod of Diamper near Cochin, in 1599, and
burned the books of the Syrian Christians. From the inscrip-
tion underneath I learned that he was the founder of the mag-
nificent church and convent in which I am now residing.
c On the same day I received an invitation to dine with the
chief inquisitor, at his house in the country. The second
inquisitor accompanied me, and we found a respectable com-
pany of priests, and a sumptuous entertainment. In the
library of the chief inquisitor I saw a register, containing the
present establishment of the inquisition at Goa, and the names
272 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
of all the officers. On my asking the chief inquisitor whether
the establishment was as extensive as formerly, he said it was
nearly the same. I had hitherto said little to any person con-
cerning the inquisition, but I had indirectly gleaned much
information concerning it, not only from the inquisitors them-
selves, but from certain priests, whom I visited at their respec-
tive convents ; particularly from a father in the Franciscan
convent, who had himself repeatedly witnessed an Auto da
Fe.
c Goa, Augustinian Convent, 26th Jan. 1808.
c On Sunday, after divine service, which I attended, we
looked over together the prayers and portions of Scripture for
the day, which led to a discussion concerning some of the
doctrines of Christianity. We then read the third chapter of
St. John's Gospel, in the Latin Vulgate. I asked the inqui-
sitor whether he believed in the influence of the Spirit there
spoken of. He distinctly admitted it ; conjointly however he
thought, in some obscure sense, with water. I observed that
water was merely an emblem of the purifying effects of the
Spirit, and could be but an emblem. We next adverted to
the expression of St. John in his first Epistle ; ' This is he
that came by water and blood : even- Jesus Christ ; not by
water only, but by water and blood : — blood to atone for sin,
and water to purify the heart ; justification and sanctification :
both of which were expressed at the same moment on the cross.
The inquisitor was pleased with the subject. By an easy
transition we passed to the importance of the Bible itself, to
illuminate the priests and people. I noticed to him that after
looking through the colleges and schools, there appeared to
me to be a total eclipse of Scriptural light. He acknowledged
that religion and learning were truly in a degraded state. — I
had visited the theological schools, and at every place I ex-
pressed my surprise to the tutors, in presence of the pupils, at
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 273
the absence of the Bible, and almost total want of reference to
it. They pleaded the custom of the place, and the scarcity
of copies of the book itself. Some of the younger priests
came to me afterwards, desiring to know by what means they
might procure copies. This inquiry for Bibles was like a ray
of hope beaming on the walls. of the inquisition.
' I pass an hour sometimes in the spacious library of the
Augustinian convent. There are many rare volumes, but
they are chiefly theological, and almost all of the sixteenth
century. There are few classics ; and I have not yet seen
one copy of the original scriptures in Hebrew or Greek.'
c Goa, Augustinian Convent, 27th Jan. 1808.
c On the second morning after my arrival, I was surprised
by my host, the Inquisitor, coming into my apartment clothed
in black robes from head to foot : for the usual dress of his
order is white. He said he was going to sit on the tribunal of
the holy office. c I presume, father, your august office does
not occupy much of your time V ( Yes' answered he c much.
I sit on the tribunal three or four days every week.'
c I had thought, for some days, of putting Dellon's book into
the Inquisitor's hands ; for if I could get him to advert to the
facts stated in that book, I should be able to learn, by com-
parison, the exact state of the inquisition at the present time.
In the evening he came in, as usual, to pass an hour in my
apartment. After some conversation I took the pen in my
hand to write a few notes in my journal ; and, as if to amuse
him, while I was writing, I took up Dellon's book, which was
lying with some others on the table, and handing it across to
him, asked him whether he had ever seen it. It was in the
French language, which he understood well. c Relation de
l'Inquisition de Goa,' pronounced he, with a slow, articulate
voice. He had never seen it before, and began to read with
eagerness. He had not proceeded far2 before he betrayed
2 N
274 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
evident symptoms of uneasiness. He turned hastily to the
middle of the boojk, and then to the end, and then ran
over the table of contents at the beginning, as if to ascer-
tain the full extent of the evil. He then composed himself
to read, while I continued to write. He turned over the
pages with rapidity, and when he came to a certain place,
he exclaimed in the broad Italian accent, c Menclacium,
Mendacium.' I requested he would mark those passages
which were untrue, and we should discuss them afterwards,
for that I had other books on the subject. 6 Other books,'
said he, and he looked with an inquiring eye on those on the
table. He continued reading till it was time to retire to rest
and then begged to take the book with him.
\ It was on this night that a circumstance happened which
caused my first alarm at Goa. My servants slept every night
at my chamber door, in the long gallery which is common to
all the apartments, and not far distant from the servants of the
convent. About midnight I was waked by loud shrieks, and
expressions of terror, from some person in the gallery. In the
first moment of surprise I concluded it must be the Alguazils
of the holy office, seizing my servants to carry them to the
inquisition. But, on going out, I saw my own servants stand-
ing at the door, and the person who had caused the alarm
(a boy of about fourteen) at a little distance, surrounded by
some of the priests, who had come out of their cells on hearing
the noise. The boy said he had seen a spectre, and it was a
considerable time before the agitations of his body and voice
subsided. — Next morning at breakfast the Inquisitor apolo-
gised for the disturbance, and said the boy's alarm proceeded
from a i phantasma animi,' a phantasm of the imagination.'
' After breakfast we resumed the subject of the inquisition.
The inquisitor admitted that Dellon's descriptions of the dun-
geons, of the torture, of the mode of trial, and of the Auto da
Fe, were in general jifst ; but he said the writer judged un-
truly of the motives of the inquisitors, and very uncharitably
of the character of the Holy Church ; and I admitted that,
u'nderthe pressure of his peculiar suffering, this might possi-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 275
bly be the case. The inquisitor was now anxious to know to
what extent Dellon's book had been circulated in Europe. I
told him that Picart had published to the world extracts from
it, in his celebrated work called i Religious Ceremonies/
together with plates of the system of torture and burnings at
the Auto da Fe. I added that it was now generally believed
in Europe that these enormities no longer existed, and that the
inquisition itself had been totally suppressed ; but that I was
concerned to find that this was not the case. He now began
a grave narration to shew that the inquisition had undergone a
change in some respects, and that its terrors were mitigated.1
(1) The following were the passages in Mr. Deiion's narrative, to
■which I wished particularly to draw the attention of the inquisitor. —
Mr. D. had been thrown into the inquisition at Goa and confined in a
dungeon, ten feet square, where he remained upwards of two years,
without seeing any person, but the gaoler who brought him his victuals,
except when he was brought to his trial, expecting daily to be brought
to the stake. His alleged crime was, charging the inquisition with cru-
elty, in a conversation he hail with a priest at Daman, a Portuguese
town in another part of India.
" During the months of November and December, I heard every
morning- the shrieks of the unfortunate victims, who were undergoing;
the Question. I remembered to have heard, before I was cast into pri-
son, that the Auto da Fe was generally celebrated on the first Sunday
in Advent, because on that day is read in the churches that part of the
Gospel in which mention is made of the last judgment ; and the in-
quisitors pretend by this ceremony to exhibit a lively emblem of that
awful event. I was likewise convinced that there were a great number
of prisoners, besides myself; the profound silence, which reigned within
the wails of the building, having enabled me to count the number of
doors which were opened at the hours of meals. — However, the first
and second Sundays of Advent passed by, without my hearing of any
thing, and I prepared to undergo another year of melancholv captivity,
when I was aroused from my despair on the 11th of January, by the
noise of the guards removing the bars from the door of my prison.
The Alcaide presented me with a habit, which he ordered me to put on,
and to make myself ready to attend him when he should come again.
Thus saying, he left a lighted lamp in my dungeon.— The guards re-
turned about two o'clock in the morning, and led me out into a long
2 N 2
276 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Ivhad already discovered, from written or printed docu-
ments, that the Inquisition of Goa was suppressed by royal
gallery, where I found a number of the companions of my fate, drawn
up in a rank against the wall : I placed myself among the rest, and
several more soon joined the melancholy band. The profound silence
and silliness caused them toresemble statues more than the animated
bodies of human creatures. The women, who were clothed in a similar
manner, were placed in a neighbouring- gallery, where we could not see
them ; but I remarked that a number of persons stood by themselves at
some distance, attended by others, who wore Jong black dresses, and
who walked backwards and forwards occasionally. I did not then know
who these were : but I was afterwards informed that the former were
the victims who were condemned to be burned, and the others were
their confessors.
" After we were all ranged against the wall of this gallery, we re-
ceived each a large wax taper. They then brought us a number of
dresses made of yellow cloth, with the cross of St. Andrew painted be-
fore and behind. This is called the San Benito. The relapsed heretics
wear another species of robe, called the Sumarra, the ground of which
is grey. The portrait of the sufferer is painted upon it, placed upon
burning torches with flames and demons all round. — Caps were then
produced called Carrochas : made of pasteboard, pointed like sugar
loaves, all covered over with devils, and flames of fire.
" The great bell of the Cathedral began to ring a little before sun-
rise, which served as a signal to warn the people of Goa to come and
behold the august ceremony of the Auto da Fe ; and then they made us
proceed from the gallery one by one. I remarked as we passed into the
great hall, that the inquisitor was sitting at the door with his secretary
by him, and that he delivered every prisoner into the hands of a parti-
cular person, who is to be his guard to the place of burning. These
persons are called Parrains, or Godfathers. My Godfather was the com.
mander of a ship. I went forth with him, and as soon as we were iu
the street, I saw that the procession was commenced by the Dominican
Friars ; who have this honour, because St. Dominic founded the inqui-
sition. These are followed by the prisoners who walked one after the
other, each having his Godfather by his side, and a lighted taper in his
hand. The least guilty go foremost; and as I did not pass for one of
them, there were many who took precedence of me. The women were
mixed promiscuously with the men. We all walked barefoot, and the
sharp stones of the streets of Goa wounded my tender feet, and caused
the blood to stream : for they made us march through the chief streets
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 277
edict in the year 1775, and established again in 1779. The
Franciscan fatter before mentioned witnessed the annual Auto
da Fe, from 1770, to 1775. u It was the humanity, and ten-
der mercy of a good king," said the old father, " which
abolished the inquisition." But immediately on his death, the
power of the priests acquired the ascendant, under the Queen
Dowager, and the tribunal was re-established, after a bloodless
of the city : and we were regarded every where by an innumerable crowd
of people, who had asssembled from ali~~parts of India to behold this
spectacle ; for the inquisition takes care to announce it long before, in
Ihe most remote parishes. At length we arrived at the church of St.
Francis, which was, for this time, destined for, the celebration of the
act of faith. On one side of the altar was the grand inquisitor and his
counsellors; and on the other the vice-royof Goa and his court. All
the prisoners were seated to hear a sermon. I observed that those pri-
soners who wore the horrible Carrochas came in last in the procession.
One of the Augustin monks ascended the pulpit, and preached for a
quarter of an hour. The sermon being concluded, two readers went up
to the pulpit, one after the other, and read the sentences of the prison-
ers. My joy was extreme when I heard that my sentence was not to be
burnt, but to be a galley-slave for five years. — After the sentences were
read, they summoned forth those miserable victims who were destined
to be immolated by the holy inquisition. The images of the heretics
who had died in prison were brought up at the same time, their bones
being contained in small chests, covered with flames and demons.- — An
officer of the secular tribunal now came forward, and seized these un-
happy people, after they had each received a slight blow upon the breast
from the Alcaide, to intimate that they were abandoned. They were
then led away to the bank of the river, where the vice-roy and bis court
were assembled, and where the faggots had been prepared the preceding
day. — As soon a3 they arrive at this place, the condemned persons are
asked in what religion they choose to die ; and the moment they have
replied to this question, the executioner seizes them, and binds them to
a stake in the midst of the faggots. The day after the execution, the
portraits of the dead are carried to the church of the Dominicans. The
heads only are represented, (which are'generally very accurately drawn ;
for the inquisition keeps excellent limners for ths purpose,) surrounded
by flames and demons ; and underneath is the name and crime of the
person who has bean burned." Relation de V Inquisition de Goa, chap.
XXI V.
278 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
interval of five years . It lias continued in operation ever since.
It was restored in 1779, subject to certain restrictions, the
chief of which are the two following, " That a greater num-
ber of witnesses should be required to convict a criminal than
were, before necessary ; and, 6 That the Auto da Fe should
not be held publicly as before ; but that the sentences of the
tribunal should be executed privately, within the walls of the
inquisition,
c In this particular, the constitution of the new inquisition
is more reprehensible than that of the old one; for, as the old
father expressed it, 6 Nunc sigilium non revelat Inquisitio.' —
Formerly the friends of those unfortunate persons who were
thrown into its prison, had the melancholy satisfaction of see-
ing them once a year walking in the procession of the Auto da
Fe ; or if they were condemned to die, they witnessed their
death, and mourned for the dead. But now they have no
means of learning for years whether they be dead or alive.
The policy of this new mode of concealment appears to be
this, to preserve the power of the inquisition, and at the same
time to lessen the public odium of its proceedings, in the pre-
sence of British dominion and civilization. I asked the father
his opinion concerning the nature and frequency of the punish-
ments within the walls. He said he possessed no certain means
of giving a satisfactory answer; that every thing transacted
there was declared to be c sacrum et secretum.' But this he
knew to be true, that there were constantly captives in the
dungeons ; that some of them are liberated after long confine-
ment, but that they never speak afterwards of what passed
within the place. He added that, of all the persons he had
known, who had been liberated, he never knew one who did
not carry about with him what might be called, c the mark of
the inquisition ;' that is to say, who did not shew in the
solemnity of his countenance, or in his peculiar demeanor, or
his terror of the priests, that he had been in that dreadful place.
' The chief argument of the Inquisitor to prove the melio-
ration of the Inquisition was the superior humanity of the
inquisitors. I remarked that I did not doubt the humanity of
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 279
the existing officers ; but what availed humanity in an inqui-
sitor ? lie must pronounce sentence according to the laws of
the tribunal, which are notorious enough ; and a relapsed
heretic must be burned in the flames, or confined for life in a
dungeon, whether the inquisitor be humane or not. 6 But, if,'
said I, ' you would satisfy my mind completely on this sub-
ject, shew me the inquisition.' He said it was not permitted
to any pesson to seethe inquisition. I observed that mine might
be considered as a peculiar case ; that the character of the
inquisition, and the expediency of its longer continuance had
been called in question; that I had myself written on the
civilization of India, and might possibly publish something
more upon that subject, and that it could not be expected that
I should pass over the inquisition without notice, knowing
what I did of its proceedings ; at the same time I should not
wish to state a single fact without his authority, or at least his
admission of its truth. I added that he himself had been
pleased to communicate with me very fully on the subject.
and that in all our discussions we had both been actuated, I
hoped, by a good purpose. The countenance of the inquisitor
evidently altered on receiving this intimation, nor did it ever
after wholly regain its wonted frankness and placidity. After
some hesitation, however, he said he would take me with him
to the inquisition the next day. — I was a good deal surprised
at this acquiescence of the inquisitor, but i did not know what
was in his mind.
' Next morning after breakfast my host went to dress for
the holy office, and soon returned in his inquisitorial robes.
He said he would go half an hour before the usual time for the
purpose of shewing me the inquisition. The buildings are
about a quarter of a mile distant from the convent^ and we
proceeded thither in our man} eels. * On our arrival at the
(1) The manjeel is a kind of palankeen common at Goa. It is mere-
ly a sea-cot suspended from a bamboo, which is borne on the heads of
four men. Sometimes a footman runs before, having a staff in his hand,
to which are attached little beils or rings, which he jingles as he runs,
keeping time with the motion of the bearers.
280 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
place, the inquisitor said to me, as we were ascending the
steps of the outer stair, that he hoped I should be satisfied
with a transient view of the inquisition, and that I would retire
whenever he should desire it. I took this as a good omen, and
followed my conductor with tolerable confidence.
< He led me first to the great hall of the inquisition. We
were met at the door by a number of well-dressed persons, who,
I afterwards understood, were the familiars, and attendants of
the holy office. They bowed very low to the inquisitor, and
looked with surprise at me. The great hall is the place in
which the prisoners are marshalled for the procession of the
Auto da Fe. At the procession described by Dellon, in which
lie himself walked barefoot, clothed with the painted garment,
there were upwards of one hundred and fifty prisoners. I
traversed this hall for some time, with a slow step, reflecting
on its former scenes, the inquisitor walking by my side, in
silence. I thought of the fate of the multitude of my fellow-
creatures who had passed through this place, condemned by
a tribunal of their fellow-sinners, their bodies devoted to the
flames, and their souls to perdition. And I could not help
saying to him, c Would not the holy church wish, in her
mercy, to have those souls back again, that she might allow
them a little further probation?' The inquisitor answered
nothing, but beckoned me to go with him to a door at one
end of the hall. By this door he conducted itie to some small
rooms, and thence to the spacious apartments of the chief
inquisitor. Having surveyed these he brought me back again
to the great hall ; and I thought he seemed now desirous that
I should depart. < Now, father,' said I, 6 lead me to the
dungeons below ; I want to see the captives.'—4 No,' said he,
< that cannot be. '---I now began to suspect that it had been in
the mind of the inquisitor, from the beginning, to shew me
only a certain part of the inquisition, in the hope of satisfying
my enquiries in a general way. I urged him with earnestness,
but he steadily resisted, and seemed to be offended, or rather
agitated by my importunity. I intimated to him plainly, that
the only way to do justice to his own assertions and arguments,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 281
regarding the present state of the inquisition, was to shew me
the prisons and the captives. I should then describe only
what I saw ; but now the subject was left in awful obscurity.
— ' Lead me down,' said I, ' to the inner building and let me
pass through the two hundred dungeons, ten feet square, de-
scribed by your former captives. Lot me count the number
of your present captives, and converse with them. I want to
see if there be any subjects of the British government, to whom
we owe protection. I want to ask how long they have been
here, how long it is since they beheld the light of the sun, and
whether they ever expect to see it again. Shew me the cham-
ber of torture ; and declare what modes of execution, or of
punishment, are now practised within the walls of the inqui-
sition, in lieu of the public Auto da Fe. If, after all that has
passed, father, you resist this reasonable request, I shall be
justified in believing, that you are afraid of exposing the real
state of the inquisition in India.1 To these observations the
inquisitor made no reply ; but seemed impatient that I should
withdraw. 6 My good father,' said I, ' I am about to take
my leave of you, and to thank you for your hospitable atten-
tions, (it had been before understood that I should take my
final leave at the door of the inquisition, after having seen the
interior,) and I wish always to preserve on my mind a favour-
able sentiment of your kindness and /candour. You cannot,
you say, shew me the captives and the dungeons ; be pleased
then merely to answer this question ; for I shall believe your
word :— How many prisoners are there now below, in the cells
of the inquisition ? The inquisitor replied, ' That is a ques-
tion which I cannot answer.' On his pronouncing these words,
I retired hastily towards the door, and wished him farewell.
We shook hands with as much cordiality as we could at the
moment assume ; and both of us, I beHeve, were sorry that
our parting took place with a clouded countenance.
6 From the inquisition I went to the place of burning in the
Camp Santo Lazaro, on the river side, where the victims were
brought to the stake at the Auto da Fe. It is close to the
palace, that the vice-roy and his court may witness the exe-
2 o
282 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
cution ; for it has ever been the policy of the inquisition to
make these spiritual executions appear to be the executions of
the state. An old priest accompanied me, who pointed out
the place and described the scene. As I passed over this me-
lancholy plain, I thought on the difference between the pure
and benign doctrine, which was first preached to India in the
apostolic age, and that bloody code, which, after a long night
of darkness, was announced to it under the same name ! And I
pondered on the mysterious dispensation, which permitted the
ministers of the inquisition, with their racks and flames, to
visit these lands, before the heralds of the Gospel of Peace.
But the most painful reflection was, that this tribunal should
yet exist, unawed by the vicinity of British humanity and
dominion. I was not satisfied with what I had seen or said at
the inquisition, and I determined to go back again. The in-
quisitors were now sitting on the tribunal, and I had some
excuse for returning ; for I was to receive from the chief in-
quisitor a letter which he said he would give me, before I left
the place, for the British resident in Travancore, being an
answer to a letter from that officer.
6 When I arrived at the inquisition, and had ascended the
outer stairs, the door-keepers surveyed me doubtingly, but
suffered me to pass, supposing that I had Returned by permis-
sion and appointment of the inquisitor. I entered the great
hall, and went up directly towards the tribunal of the inquisi-
tion, described by Dellon, in which is the lofty crucifix. 1
sat down on a form, and wrote some notes ; and then desired
one of the attendants to carry in my name to the inquisitor.
As I walked up the hall, I saw a poor woman sitting by her-
self, on a bench by the wall, apparently in a disconsolate state
of mind. She clasped her hands as I passed, and gave me a
look expressive of her distress. This sight chilled my spirits.
The familiars told me she was waiting there to be called up
before the tribunal of the inquisition. While I was asking
questions concerning her crime, the second inquisitor came
out in evident trepidation, and was about to complain of the
intrusion ; when I informed him I had come back for the letter
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 283
from the chief inquisitor. He said it should be sent after me
to Goa; and he conducted me with a quick step towards the
door. As we passed the poor woman I pointed to her, and
said to him with some emphasis, ' Behold, father, another
victim of the holy inquisition !' He answered nothing. When
we arrived at the head of the great stair, he bowed, and I
took my last leave of Josephus a Doloribus, without uttering
a word.' ♦
The foregoing particulars concerning the inquisition at
Goa are detailed chiefly with this view ; that the English na-
tion may consider, whether there be sufficient ground for pre-
senting a remonstrance to the Portuguese government, on th©
longer continuance of that tribunal in India ; it being notori-
ous, that a great part of the the Romish Christians are now
under British protection. " The Romans," says Montesquieu,
" deserved well of human nature, for making it an article in
their treaty with the Carthaginians, that they should abstain
from sacrificing their children to their gods." It has
been lately observed by respectable writers, that the English
nation ought to imitate this example, and endeavour to induce
her allies " to abolish the human sacrifices of the inquisition ;''
and a censure is passed on our government for their indiffer-
ence to this subject. * The indifference to the inquisition is
attributable, we believe, to the same cause which has produced
an indifference to the religious principles which first organized
the inquisition. The mighty despot, who suppressed the in-
quisition in Spain, was not swayed probably by very powerful
motives of humanity ; but viewed with jealousy a tribunal,
which usurped an independent dominion ; and he put it down,
on the same principle that he put down the popedom, that he
might remain pontiff and grand inquisitor himself. And so
he will remain for a time, till the purposes of Providence shall
have been accomplished by him. But are we to look on in
silence, and to expect that further meliorations in human soci-
(l) Edin. Rey. No. XXXII. p. 449.
2 o 2
284 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
ety are to be effected by despotism, or by great revolutions ?
" If," say the same authors, u while the inquisition is destroyed
in Europe by the power of despotism, we could entertain the
hope, and it is not too much to entertain such a hope, that
the power of liberty is about to destroy it in America ; we
might even, amid the gloom that surrounds us, congratulate
our fellow-creatures on one of the most remarkable periods in
the history of the progress of human society, the Fiar al era-
sure of the inquisition from the face of the earth."* It
will indeed be an important and happy day to the earth, when
this final erasure shall take place ; but the period of such an
event is nearer, I apprehend, in Europe and America, than it
is in Asia; and its termination in Asia depends as much on
Great Britain as on Portugal. And shall not Great Britain do
her part to hasten this desirable time ? Do we wait, as if to
gee whether the power of infidelity will abolish the other in-
quisitions of the earth ? Shall not we, in the mean while,
attempt to do something, on Christian principles, for the
honour of God and of humanity ? Do we dread even to ex-
press a sentiment on the subject in our legislative assemblies,
or to notice it in our treaties ? It is surely our duty to declare
our wishes, at least, for the abolition of these inhuman tribu-
nals, (since we take an active part in promoting the welfare of
other nations,) and to deliver our testimony against them
in the presence of Europe.
This case is not unlike that of the immolation of females in
Bengal, with this aggravation in regard to the latter, that the
rite is perpetrated in our own territories. Our humanity revolts
at the occasional description of the enormity ; but the matter
comes not to our own business and bosoms, and we fail even
to insinuate our disapprobation of the deed. It may be con-
cluded then, that while we remain silent and unmoved specta-
tors of the flames of the widow's pile, there is no hope that
we shall be justly affected by the reported horrors of the in-
quisition.— (Thus far Dr. Buchannan.)
(I) Edin. Rev. No. XXXII. p. 429.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 285
BOOK IV.
OF PERSECUTIONS AMONGST PROTESTANTS,
After the world had groaned for many ages under the
insupportable bondage of Popish superstition and cruelty, it
pleased God, in his own good Providence, to take the remedy
of these evils into his own hands ; and after several ineffectual
attempts by men, at last to bring about a reformation of religi-
on by his own wisdom and power. The history of this great
event hath been very particularly and faithfully given by
many excellent writers, to which I must here refer my readers ;
and it must be owned, that the persons employed by Almighty
God, to accomplish this great work, were, many of them, re-
markable for their great learning and exemplary piety. I am
sure I have no inclination to detract from their worth and
merit. One would indeed have imagined, that the cruelties
exercised by the papists upon all who opposed their supersti-
tions in worship, and their corruptions in doctrine, should have
given the first reformers an utter abhorrence of all methods of
persecution for conscience-sake, and have kept them from ever
entering into any such measures themselves. But it must be
confessed, that however they differed from the church of
Rome, as to doctrines and discipline, jet, that they too gene-
rally agreed with her, in the methods to support what they
themselves apprehended to be truth and orthodoxy ; and were
angry with the papists, not for persecuting, but for persecut-
ing themselves and their followers ; being really of opinion
that heretics might be persecuted, and, in some cases, perse-
cuted to death. And that this was their avowed principle,
they gave abundant demonstration by their practice,
286 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION*
SECT. I.
Luther's opinion concerning Persecution.
Luther, that great instrument, under God, of the re-
formation in Germany, was, as his followers allow, naturally
of a warm and violent temper, but was however in his judg-
ment against punishing heretics with death. Thus, in his
account of the state of the Popish church, as related by Seek-
endori, he says : 1 u the true church teaches the word of God,
but forces no one to it. If any one will not believe it, she
dismisses him, and separates herself from hirn, according to
the command of Christ, and the example of Paul in the Acts,
and leaves him to the judgment of God : whereas our execu-
tioners and most cruel tyrants teach not the word of God, but
their own articles, acting as they please, and then adjudge
those who refuse to believe their articles, and obey their de-
crees, to the fires." The same author gives us many other
strong passages to the same purpose. Particularly, in one of
his letters to Lineus, who asked his opinion about the punish-
ment of false teachers, Luther says : 2 "lam very averse to the
shedding of blood, even in the case of such as deserve it : and
I the more especially dread it in this case, because, as the
Papists and Jews, under this pretence, have destroyed holy
prophets and innocent men ; so 1 am afraid the same would
happen amongst ourselves, if in one single instance it should
be allowed lawful for seducers to be put to death. I can
therefore, by no means, allow that false teachers should be
destroyed." But as to all other punishments, Luther seems to
have been of Austin's mind, and thought that they might be law-
fully used. For, after the before-mentioned passage, he adds,
(1) L. 2. Sect. 36. % 83. (2) Ibid. Sect. 13. % 43.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 287
€C It Is sufficient that they should be banished . " A nd in another
place1 he allows, that " heretics may be corrected, and forced
at least to silence, if they publicly deny any one of the articles
received by all christians, and particularly that Christ is God ;
affirming him to be a mere man or prophet." " This," says
lie, u is not to force men to the faith, but to restrain from
public blasphemy." In another place he goes farther and
says,2 that u heretics are not indeed to be put to death, but
may however be confined, and shut up in some certain place?
and put under restraint as madmen." As to the Jews, he was
for treating them more severely ; 3 and was of opinion, that
"their synagogues should be levelled with the ground, their
houses destroyed, their books of prayer, and of the talmud,
and even those of the old testament, be taken from them ;
their rabbies be forbid to teach, and forced, by hard labour,
to g&L their bread ; and if they would not submit to this, that
they should be banished, as was formerly practised in. France
and Spain."
4 This was the moderation of this otherwise great and good
man, who was indeed against putting heretics to death, but for
almost all other punishments that the civil magistrates could
inflict : and agreeably to this opinion, he persuaded the Electors
of Saxony not to tolerate in their dominions, the followers
of Zuinglius, in the opinion of the sacrament, because he
esteemed the real presence an essential or fundamental article of
faith ; nor to enter into any terms of union with them, for their
common safety and defence, against the endeavours of the
papists to destroy them. And accordingly, notwithstanding
all the endeavours of the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, to get
them included in the common league against the papists, the
Elector would never allow it, being vehemently dissuaded
from it by Luther, Melancton, and others of their party, who
alledged, " That they taught articles contrary to those receiv-
(1) Ibid. Sect. 36. § 83. (3) L. 3. Sect. 27. § 3.
(2) L. 3. Sect. S. § 28, (4) L. 3. Sect. 32. { 125.
288 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
ed in Saxony ; and, that therefore there could be no agreement
of heart with them."
In one of his conferences with Bucer, he, declared, that
there could be no union, unless Zuinglius and his party should
think and teach otherwise ; cursing all ph rases and interpre-
tations that tended to assert the figurative presence only ;
affirming, that * ""either those of his own opinion, or those of
Zuinglius, must be the ministers of the devil.,, On this
account, though Luther was for treating Zuinglius and his
followers with as much christian friendship as he could afford
them, yet he would never own them for brethren, but looked
on them as heretics, and pressed the Electors of Saxony not
to allow them in their dominions. 2He also wrote to Albert
Duke of Prussia, to persuade him to banish them his territo-
ries. Seckendorf also tells us, that the Lutheran lawyers of
Wirtembunr condemned to death one Peter Pestelius5 for
being a Zuinglian ; though this was disapproved by the
Elector of Saxony. Several also of the anabaptists were put
to death by the Lutherans, for their obstinacy in propagating
their errors, contrary to the judgment of the Landgrave of
Hesse Cassel, who declared himself for more moderate mea-
sures, and for uniting all sorts of protestants amongst them-
selves.
SECT. II.
Calvin's Doctrine and Practice concerning Persecution.
John Calvii*, another of the reformers, and to whom
the christian world is, on many accounts, under jery great
obligations, was however well known to be in principle and
practice a persecutor. So entirely was he in the persecuting
(1) L. 2. Sect. 6. $ 11. (3) L. 3. Sect. 6. ^ 15. Sect. 13.
(2) Sect 17. ^ 47. ^ 41. Ibid.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 289
measures, that he wrote a treatise in defence of them, maintain-
ing the lawfulness of putting heretics to death. And that by
heretics he meant such who differed from himself, is evident
from his treatment of Castellio and Servetus.
The former, not inferior to Calvin himself in learning and
piety, had the misfortune to differ from him in judgment, in
the points of predestination, election, free-will and faith.
This Calvin could not bear, and therefore treated Castellio in
so rude and cruel a manner, as I believe his warmest friends
will be ashamed to justify. In some of his writings he calls
him " Blasphemer, reviler, malicious barking dog, full of
ignorance, bestiality and impudence; impostor, a base cor-
rupter of the sacred writings, a mocker of God, a contemner
of all religion, an impudent fellow, a filthy dog, a knave, an
impious, lewd, crooked-minded vagabond, beggarly rogue.'*
At other times he calls him " a disciple and brother of Serve-
tus, and an heretic." Castellio's reply to all these flowers, is
worthy the patience and moderation of a Christian, and from
his slanderer he appeals to the righteous judgment of God.
But not content with these invectives, Calvin farther ac-
cused him of three crimes ; which Castellio particularly an-
swers. The first was of theft, in taking away some wood,
that belonged to another person, to make a fire to warm him-
self withal : this Calvin calls " Cursed gain, at another's ex-
pence and damage;" whereas, in truth, the fact was this.
Castellio was thrown into such circumstances of poverty by
the persecutions of Calvin and his friends, that he was scarce
able to maintain himself. And as he dwelt near the banks of
the Rhine, he used at leisure hours to draw out of the river
with an hook, the wood that was brought down by the waters
of it. This wood was no private property, but every man's
that could catch it. Castellio took it in the middle of the day,
and amongst a great number of fishermen, and several of his
own acquaintance ; and was sometimes paid money for it by
the decree of the senate. This the charitable Calvin magnifies
into a theft, and publishes to the world to paint out the charac-
ter of his Christian brother.
2,p
290 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
But his accusations ran farther yet ; and he calls God to wit-
nes, that whilst he maintained Castellio in his house, " He never
saw any one more proud or perfidious, or void of humanity; and
it was well known he was an impostor, of a peculiar impudence,
and one that took pleasure in scoffing at piety, and that he
delighted himself in laughing at the principles of religion.''
These charges Castellio answers in such a manner, as was
enough to put even malice itself to silence. For, notwith-
standing Calvin's appeal to God for the truth of these things,
yet he himself and two of his principal friends, who were
eminent preachers in Savoy, pressed Castellio, even contrary
to his inclination, to take the charge of a school at Strats-
burg ; and therefore, as he says to Calvin, u With what con-
science could you make me master, if you knew me to be
such a person when I dwelt in your house ? What sort of
men must they be, who would commit the education of chil-
dren to such a wicked wretch, as you appeal to God you knew
me to be."
But what is yet more to the purpose, is, that after lie had
been master of that school three years, Calvin gave him a
testimonial, written and signed with his own hand, as to the
integrity of his past behaviour ; affirming, amongst other
things, " That he had behaved himself in such a manner^
that he was, by the consent of all of them, appointed to the
pastoral office." And in the conclusion he adds, U Lest any
one should suspect any other reason why Sebastian went from
us, we testify to all wheresoever he may come, that he him-
self voluntarily left the school, and so behaved himself in it,
as that we adjudged him worthy this sacred ministry." And
that he was not actually received into it, was " non aliqua
vitae macula," not owing to any blemish of his life, nor to
any impious tenets that he held in matters of faith, but to this
only cause, the difference of our opinions about Solomon's
Songs, and the article of Christ's descent into hell. But how
is this testimonial, that Castellio had no " macula vita?," was
unblameable as to his life, reconcileable with the appeal to
God, that he was proud and perfidious, and void of humanity >
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 291
and a professed scoffer at religion, whilst be dwelt at Calvin's
house ? If this charge was true, how came Calvin and his
friends to appoint him master of a school, and judge him
worthy the sacred ministry ? Or if he was of so bad a cha*
racter once, and afterwards gave the evidence of a sincere re-
pentance by an irreproachable behaviour, what equity or jus-
tice, what humanity or honour was there iii publishing to the
world faults that had been repented of and forsaken ? Castellio
solemnly protests that he had never injured Calvin, and that the
sole reason of his displeasure against him was because he dif-
fered from him in opinion. On this account he endeavoured
to render him every where impious, prohibited the reading of
his books ; and, what is the last effort of enmity, endea-
voured to excite the civil magistrate against him to put him to
death. But God was pleased to protect this good man from
the rage of his enemies. He died at Basil, in peace ; and re-
ceived an honourable burial, the just reward of his piety,
learning, and merit.
I may add to this account, Calvin's treatment of one Jerom
Bolsec,1 who from a Carmelite monk had embraced the re-
formed religion, but held the doctrine of free-will and predes-
tination upon the foresight of good works. Calvin was present
at a sermon preached by him at Geneva, upon these articles;
and the sermon being ended, publicly opposed him in the con-
gregation. When the assembly was dismissed, poor Bolsec
was immediately apprehended, and sent to prison ; and soon
after, by Calvin's counsel, banished for sedition and Pelagi-
an ism from the city, and forbid ever to come into it, or the
territories of it, under pain of being whipped, A. C. 1551. ~
But Calvin's treatment of the unfortunate Servetus was yet
more severe. His book, entitled, u Restitutio Christianismi,"
which he sent in MS. to Calvin, enraged him to that degree,
that he afterwards kept no temper or measures with him; so-
that as Bolsec and Uytenbogaert relate, in a letter written by
(!) Bez. in vii. Calvin.
2 P 2
292 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
him to his friends Viret and Farrel, he tells them,1 that "If
this heretic (Servetus) should ever fall into Ills hands, he would
take care that he should lose his life.'* Servetus's imprison-
ment at Vienne, soon gave him an opportunity to shew his
zeal against him : for, in order to strengthen the evidence
against him, Calvin sent to the magistrates of that city the let-
ters and writings which Servetus had sent to him at Geneva.
This is evident from the sentence itself against him ; in which
those writings, as well as his printed book, are expressly men-
tioned, as containing the proofs of his heresy. Whether Cal-
vin sent them of his own accord, or at the desire of the ma-
gistrates of Vienne, I shall not presume to determine. If of
Ills own accord, it was a base oiFieiousness ; and if at the re-
quest of those magistrates, it was a most unaccountable con-
duct in a Protestant to send evidence to a Popish court to put
a Protestant to death ; especially considering that Servetus
could not differ more from Calvin than Calvin did from the
Papists, their common adversaries, and who certainly deserved
as much to be burnt, in their judgment, as Servetus did in
Calvin's.
Besides this, Servetus farther charges him with writing to
one William Trie, at Lyons, to furnish the magistrates of that
city with matter of accusation against him. The author of
the Bibliotheque before-mentioned, says this is a mere romance,
dressed up by Servetus. I confess it doth not appear to me in
so very romantic a light ; at least Calvin's vindication of him-
self, from this charge, doth not seem to be altogether sufficient.
He says, " It is commonly reported that I occasioned Servetus
to be apprehended at Vienne ; on which account it is said, by
many, that I have acted dishonourably, in thus exposing him
to the mortal enemies of the faith, as though I had thrown
him into the mouth of the wolves. But, I beseech you, how
came I so suddenly into such an intimacy with the pope's offi-
cers ?• It is very likely, truly, that we should correspond
(1) Biblioth. Raison. Pour d' Octobre, &c. 1728. Art. VIII.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 293
together by letters ; and that those who agree with me, just as
Belial doth with Jesus Christ, should enter into a plot with
their mortal enemy, as with their companion : This silly ca-
lumny will fall to the ground, when I shall say, in one word,
that there is nothing in it." But how dotli all this confute
Scrvetus's charge? For whatever differences soever there
might be between Calvin and ihe Papists in some things, yety
why might lie not write to the Papists at Yicnne to put Serve-
It is to death for what was equally counted heresy by them
both, and when they agreed as the most intimate friends and
companions in the lawfulness of putting heretics to death ?
What Calvin says of the absurdity of their intimacy and con-
spiracy with him their modal enemy, is no absurdity at all.
Herod and Pontius Pilate, though enemies, agreed in the con-
demnation of the Son of God.
Besides, it is certain, that the magistrates at Vienne had
Scrvetus's Manuscripts sent to them from Geneva, either by
Calvin, or the magistrates of that city ; and when Servetus
was afterwards apprehended at Geneva, the magistrates there
sent a messenger to Vienne, for a copy of the process that had
been there carried on against him ; which that messenger re-
ceived, and actually brought back to Geneva. So that
nothing is more evident, than that there was an intimacy and
conspiracy between the Protestants of Geneva and the Papists
at Vienne, to take away the life of poor Servetus ; and that,
though they were mortal enemies in other things, and as far
different from one another as Christ and Belial, yet that they
agreed harmoniously in the doctrine and practice of persecu-
tion, and were one in the design and endeavour of murdering
this unhappy physician. And though Calvin is pleased ma-
gisterially to deny his having any communication by letters
with the Papists at Vienne, yet I think his denial far from suf-
ficient to remove the suspicion. He himself expressly says
that many persons blamed him for not acting honourably in
that affair; and the accusation was suported by Servetus's
complaint, and by what is a much stronger evidence, the
original papers and letters which Servetus had sent to Calvin,
£94 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
which were actually produced by the judges at Vienne, and
recited in the sentence as part of the foundation of his con-
demnation. And as Calvin himself never, as I can find, hath
attempted to clear up these strong circumstances, though he
owed it to himself and his friends^ I think he cannot well be
excused from practising the death of Servetus at Vienne, and
lending his assistance to the bloody Papists of that place, the
more effectually to procure his condemnation,
But he had the good fortune to make his escape from im-
prisonment, and was, June 17, 1553, condemned for contuma-
cy, and burnt in effigy by the order of his judges ; having
himself got safe to Geneva, where he was re-condemned, and
actually burnt in person, October 27, of the same year 1553.
He had not been long in this city before Calvin spirited up
one Nicholas de la Fountain, probably one of his pupils, to
make information against him ; wisely avoiding it himself,
because, according to the laws of Geneva, the accuser must
submit to imprisonment with the party he accuses, till the
crime appears to have a solid foundation and proof. Upon
this information Servetus was apprehended and imprisoned.
Calvin ingenuously owns, that this whole affair was carried on
at his instance and advice ; and that, in order to bring Ser-
vetus to reason, he himself found out the party to accuse him,
^nd begin the process against him. And therefore, though,
as the fore-mentioned author of the Bibliothcquc, for January,
&c. 1729, observes, the action, after its commencement, was
carried on according to the course of law ; yet, as Calvin
accused him for heresy, got him imprisoned, and began the
criminal process against him, he is answerable for all the con-
sequences of his trial, and was in reality the first and principal
author of his death ; especially as the penal laws against here-
tics seem at that time to have been in force at Geneva, so that
Servetus could not escape the fire upon his conviction of heresy.
When he was in jail, lie was treated with the same rigour
as if he had been detained in one of the prisons of the inquisi-
tion. He was stripped of all means of procuring himself the
conveniences and supplies he needed in his confinement.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, §95
■They took from liirn ninety-seven pieces of gold, a gold chain
worth twenty crowns, six gold rings, and at last put him. into
a deep dungeon, where he was almost eaten up with vermin.
All this cruelty was practised upon a protestant in the pro-
testant city of Geneva. Besides this, he could never get a
proctor or advocate to assist him, or help him in pleading his
cause, though he requested it, as being a stranger, and igno-
rant of the laws and customs of the country. Calvin, at the
request of the judges, drew up certain propositions out of
Servetus's books, representing them as blasphemous, full of
errors and profane reveries, all repugnant to the word of God,
and to the common consent of the whole church ; and, indeed,
appears to have been acquainted with, and consulted in the
whole process, and to have used all his arts and endeavours to
prevent his coming off with impunity.
It is but a poor and mean excuse that Calvin makes for
himself in this respect, when he says; *" As to the fact, I
will not deny, but that it was at my prosecution he was im-
prisoned : — But that after he was convicted of his heresies, I
made no instances for his being put to death." But what need
of instances ? He had already accused him, got him im-
prisoned, prosecuted in a criminal ^court for the capital
crime of heresy, and actually drew up forty articles against
him for heresy, blasphemy, and false doctrine. When he
was convicted of these crimes, the law could not but take its
course ; and his being burnt to death was the necessary con-
sequence of his conviction. What occasion was there then
for Calvin to press his execution, when the laws themselves
had adjudged him to the flames ? But even this excuse, poor
as it is, is not sincerely and honestly made : for Calvin was
resolved to use all his interest to destroy him. In his letter to
Farrel, he expressly says, " 1 hope, at least, they will condemn
him to death, but not to the terrible one of being burnt." And
in another to Suitzer, " Since the papists, in order \o vindi-
(1) Epist ad Farrel.
296 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
cate their own superstitions, cruelly shed innocent blood, it is
a shame that Christian magistrates should have no courage at
all in the defence of certain truth. — However, I will certify
you of one thing, that the city treasurer is rightly determined,
that he shall not escape that end which we wish him." And
in another to the church at Franckfort,1 " The author (Serve-
tus) is put in jail by our magistrates, and I hope he will shortly
suffer the punishment he deserves. There was but one way
possible for him to escape ; and that was by bringing his cause
from the criminal court, where he was prosecuted, before the
council of the two hundred. And this Calvin vigorously oppos-
ed and reflected on the syndic himself for endeavouring it. He
says, li that he pretended illness for three days, and then came
into court to save that wretch (Servetus) from punishment ; and
was not ashamed to demand, that the cognizance of the affair
should be referred to the two hundred. However he was
unanimously condemned." Now, what great difference is
there between a prosecutor's endeavouring to prevent the only
method by which a criminal can be saved, and his actually
pressing for his being put to death ? Calvin actually did the
former, and yet would fain persuade us he had no hand in the
latter.
It is much of a piece with this, his desiring that the rigour
of Scrvetus's death might be mitigated ; for as the laws against
heretics were in force at Geneva, the tribunal that judged
Servetus could not, after his conviction of heresy, absolve him
from death, nor change the manner of it, as Calvin says he
would have had it ; and therefore his desiring that the rigour
of it might be abated, looks too much like the practice of the
inquisitors, who when they deliver over an heretic to the se-
cular arm, beseech it so to moderate the rigour of the sentence,
as not to endanger life or limb.
This was the part that Calvin acted in the affair of Servetus,
which I. have represented in the most impartial manner, as it
(1) Epist. ad Farrd.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 297
appears to me ; and am sorry I am not able to wipe off so foul
a stain from the memory of this otherwise excellent and learn-
ed reformer. But when his enemies charge him with acting
merely from principles of malice and revenge in this matter,
I think it an evident abuse and calumny. He was, in his own
judgment, for persecuting and destroying heretics, as appears
from the treatise he published in vindication of this practice,
entitled, " A declaration for maintaining the true faith, held
by all Christians concerning the Trinity of persons in one only
God, by John Calvin, against the detestable errors of Michael
Servetus, a Spaniard. In which it is also proved, that it is lawful
to punish heretics ; and that this wretch was justly executed in
the city of Geneva." Geneva, 1554.
This principle was maintained by almost all the fathers and
bishops of the church since the three first centuries, who
esteemed heresy as one of the worst of impieties, and thought
it the duty of the civil magistrates to employ their power for
the suppression of it, and for the support and establishment
of the orthodox faith. And though the first reformers ab-
horred the cruelty of the papists towards the protestants, they
had nevertheless the same abhorrence of what they counted
heresy that the papists had, and agreed with them in the law-
fulness of suppressing it by the civil power. So that Calvin
acted in this affair from a principle, though a mistaken prin-
ciple of conscience, and had the encouragement and appro-
bation of the most learned and pious reformers of the times he
lived in.
Melancton, in a letter to Bullinger, says1 " I have read
also what you have written concerning the blasphemies of Ser-
vetus, and I approve your piety and judgment. I think also,
that the senate of Geneva have done right, that they have put
to death that obstinate person, who would not cease to blas-
pheme ; and I wonder that there are any who disapprove that
severity." He affirms the same also in another letter to Cal-
vin himself. Bucer also said publicly in his sermon, that
(1) Calv. Op. Vol. nit,
2 Q
298 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
u He ought to have his bowels pulled out, and be torn in
pieces," as Calvin relates in his letter to Sultzer. Farrel in a
letter to Calvin, says, that " Fie deserved to die ten thousand
deaths ; that it would be a piece of cruelty, and an injustice
to Christ, and the doctrine of piety, for magistrates not to
take notice of the horrible blasphemies of that wicked heretic.
And he hoped God would so order it that as the magistrates of
Geneva were very praise- worthy for punishing thieves and
sacrilegious persons, so they would behave themselves well in
ike affair of Servetus, by putting him to death, who had so
long obstinately persisted in his heresies, and destroyed so
many persons by them."
1The pastors of the church at Basil, in their letter to the
syndics and senate of Geneva, express their joy for the appre-
hension of Servetus, and advise them first to u Use all endea-
vours to recover him ; but that if he persisted in his perverse-
ness, they should punish him according to their office, and the
power they had received from God, to prevent his giving any
disturbance to the church, and lest the latter end should be
worse than the first." 2The ministers of the church of Bern
were of the same opinion ; and in their letter to the magistrates
of Geneva say, " We pray the Lord that he would give you
the spirit of prudence, counsel and strength, to remove this
plague from the churches, both your own and others," and
advise them " to neglect nothing that may be judged unwor-
thy a Christian magistrate to omit." 3The ministers of Zu-
rich give much the same advice, and thought that there was
need of a great deal of diligence in the affair ; " especially
as the reformed churches were evil thought of, amongst other
reasons for this, as being themselves heretical, and favourers
of heretics. But that, as the Providence of God had given
them an opportunity of wiping off so evil a suspicion, and
preventing the farther spreading of so contagious a poison,
they did not doubt but their excellencies would be careful to
improve it." ^ 4 Those of Scaffhusen subscribed to thejuilg-
0) Ibid. (2) Ibid. (3) Ibid. (4) Ibid.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 299
merit of those of Zurich, and declare, that they did not
doubt, but that their prudence would put a stop to the attempts
of Servetus, lest his blasphemies, as a canker, should eat up
the members of Christ; adding these remarkable words,
" That to endeavour to oppose his dreams by a train of rea-
soning, what would it be, but to grow mad with a madman ?"
These extracts, which are taken out of the letters printed
at the end of Calvin's Institutions, clearly demonstrate that
he acted seriously and deliberately in the affair of Servetus ;
and that he consulted the neighbouring churches, and had
their opinion of the lawfulness and expediency of putting
him to death for his heresies. And though it doth not wholly
excuse his fault, yet it ought in justice to be allowed as an
abatement and extenuation of it ; and, I think, evidently
proves, what his enemies are very unwilling to allow, that he
was not transported by rage and fury, and did not act merely
from the dictates of envy and malice, but from a mistaken
zeal against what he accounted blasphemy and heresy, and
with the concurrent advice of his brethren in the ministry,
and fellow-labourers in the great work of the reformation.
And I think his eminent services to the church of God, both
by his preaching and writings, ought, notwithstanding all his
failings, to secure to his memory the honour and respect that
is due to it : for he deserved well of all the reformed churches,
and was an eminent instrument in the hand of Providence, in
promoting the great and- glorious work of saving men from
the gross errors, superstitions and idolatries of the Romish
church. And as I thought myself obliged impartially to
represent these things as they appeared to me, I hope ail
who love to distinguish themselves by Calvin's name, will be
careful not to imitate him in this great blemish of his life,
which, in reality, hath tarnished a character, that would
otherwise have appeared amongst the first and brightest of the
age he lived in.
In the year 1632, after Calvin's death, one Nicholas An-
thoine was condemned also by the council of Geneva, to be
first hanged, and afterwards burnt ; because, that having for«
2 q 2
300 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
gotten the fear of God, he had committed the crime of apos-
tacy and high treason against God, by having opposed the
Holy Trinity, denied our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
blasphemed his holy name, renounced his baptism, and the
like.
SECT. III.
Persecutions at Bern, Easily and Zurich.
Valentinus Gentilts,1 a native of Cosentia in Italy,
had the misfortune also to fall into some heterodox opinions
concerning the Trinity, and held that the Father alone was
«t/7o0«©*? God of himself, aye^jj]®*, unbegotten, Essentiator,
the giver of essence to all other beings ; but that the Son was
Essentiatus, of a derived essence from the Father, and there-
fore not aJ]o0E©*, or God of himself, though at the same time
he allowed him to be truly God. He held much the same as
to the Holy Ghost, making them three eternal Spirits, distin-
guished by a gradual and due subordination, reserving the
monarchy to the Father, whom he stiled the one only God.
Being forced to fly his native country, on account of his re-
ligion, he came to Geneva, where there was a church of Italian
refugees, several of whom, such as G. Blandrata, a physician,
Gribaldus, a lawyer, and Paulus Alciatus, differed from the
commonly received notions of the Trinity. When their he-
terodoxes came to be known at Geneva, they were cited before
the senators, ministers, and presbyters, and being heard in
their own defence, were refuted by Calvin, and all subscribed
to the orthodox faith.
But V. Gentilis having after this endeavoured to propagate
his own opinions, he was again apprehended, and forced by
(1) Bez. in Tit. Calv. B. Aret. Hist. Val. Gent.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 301
Calvin and others lo a public abjuration, and condemned anno
1558, to an exemplary penance, viz. " That he should be
stripped close to his shirt, then barefoot and bare-headed
should carry in his hand a lighted torch, and beg God and the
court's pardon on his knees, by confessing himself maliciously
and wickedly to have spread abroad a false and heretical doc-
trine ; but that he did now from his heart detest and abhor
those abominable, lying, and blasphemous books, he had com-
posed in its defence ; in testimony of which he was to cast
them, with his own hands, into the flames, there to be burnt,
to ashes. And for more ample satisfaction, he was injoined
to be led through all the streets of Geneva, at the sound of
trumpet, in his penetential habit, and strictly commanded not
to depart the city without permission." And this penance he
actually underwent.
But having found means to make his escape, he came at last
to Gaium, a prefecture, subject to the canton of Bern, where he
was seized and imprisoned by the governor, who immediately
sent an account of his apprehension to the senate of Bern,
who ordered him to be brought prisoner to that city, where
they put him in jail. After they had seized all his books and
papers, they collected several articles, with the 4ieads of an
indictment out of them to be preferred against him. Amongst
others these were two, 1. "That he dissented from us, %nd
all the orthodox, in the doctrine of the Trinity." And
2. " That his writings contained many impious blasphemies
concerning the Trinity." And because he continued obstinate
in his opinions, notwithstanding the endeavours of the diyines
to convert him, he was condemned by the senate, for hi/ blas-
phemies against the Son of God, and the glorious mystery of
the Trinity, to be beheaded ; which sentence was executed on
him in September, anno 1566. /
*At Basil, also, heresy was a crime punishabM with death,
since the reformation, as appears from the t/atment of the
, . / ;
* - ' ' 7
(1) Brand Hist. Book 3. p/?v
302 % THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
dead body of David George, an enthusiastical anabaptist.
Having left Holland he went to Basil, and settled there as one
that was banished out of his country for the sake of his reli-
gion, propagating his own doctrines by letters, books, and
messengers in Holland. But his errors being discovered after
his death, he was taken out of his grave, and together with
his books and pictures burnt to ashes, by order of the magis-
trates, at the place of execution, without the walls of Basil,
May 13, 1559. His opinions were first extracted from the
printed books and manuscript papers found in his house, and
himself declared an arch heretic.
Zurich also furnishes us with an instance of great cruelty
towards an anabaptist. A severe edict was published against
them, in which there was a penalty of a silver mark, about
four shillings English money, set upon all such as should suf-
fer themselves to be-rebaptized, or should withhold baptism
from their children. And it was farther declared, that those
who openly opposed this order, should be yet more severely
treated. Accordingly one Felix was drowned at Zurich,
upon the sentence pronounced by Zuinglius, in these four
Words, " Qui interum mergit, mergatur :" He that re-dips,
let him be drowned. This happened in the year 1526,
About the same time also, and since, there were some more of
them put to death. 2From the same place, also, Ochinus
was banished, in his old age, in the depth of winter, together
with his children, because he was an Arian, and defended
polygamy, if Beza's account of him be true.
-Lubicniecius,3 a Polish Unitarian, was, through the prac-
tices of the Calvinists, banished with his brethren from Po-
land, hfc native country ; and forced to leave several protes-
tant cities of Germany, to which he had fled for refuge,
particularly Stetin, Freclerickstadt, and Hamburg, through
the practices 0f the Lutheran divines, who were against all
(i; Book 2. p. 5, (3) Vit. Lub. Prajf. Hist. Re-
(8) Beza, Epist. 1. format. Polon.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 303
toleration. At Hamburg he received the orders of the magis-
trates of the city to depart the place on his death-bed ; and
when his dead body was carried to Altenau to be interred,
though the preachers could not, as they endeavoured, pre-
vent his being buried in the church, yet they did actually
prevent the usual funeral honours being paid him. John Syl-
vanus,1 superintendant of the church of Heidelberg, was put
to death by order of Frederick Elector Palatine, anno 1571,
being accused of Arianism.
SECT. IV.
Persecutions in Holland^ and by the Synod of Dort.
If we pass over into Holland, we shall also find that the
reformers there were most of them in the principles and mea-
sures of persecution, and managed their differences with that
heat and fury, as gave great advantages to the Papists, their
common enemies. In the very infancy of the reformation the
Lutherans and Calvinists condemned each other for their sup-
posed heterodoxy in the affair of the sacrament, and looked
upon compliance and mutual toleration to be things intolerable.
These differences v/ere kept up principally by the clergy of
each party. The Prince of Orange, and States of Holland,
who were heartily inclined to the reformation, were not for
confining their protection to any particular set of principles or
opinions, but for granting an universal indulgence in all mat-
ters of religion, aiming at peace and mutual forbearance, and
to open the church as wide as possible for all Christians of un-
blameable lives ; whereas the clergy being biassed by their
passions and inclinations for those masters, in whose writings
they had been instructed, endeavoured with all their might to
(1) Lub. Hist !- 2. c.
304 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
establish and conciliate authority to their respective opinions ;
aiming only at decisions and definitions, and shutting up the
church by limitations in many doubtful and disputable articles;
so that the disturbances which were raised, and the severities
which were used upon the account of religion, proceeded from
the bigotry of the clergy, contrary to the desire and intention
of the civil magistrate.
Before the ministers of the reformed party were engaged
in the controversy with Arminius, * their zeal was continually
exerting itself against the anabaptists, whom they declared to
be excommunicated and cut oiF from the church, and en-
deavoured to convert by violence and force, prohibiting them
from preaching under fines, and banishing them their country,
upon account of their opinions. And the better to colour these
proceedings, some of them wrote in defence of persecution ;
or, which is the same thing, against the toleration of any reli-
gion or opinions different from their own ; and for the better
support of orthodoxy, they would have had the synods ordain,
that all church officers should renew their subscriptions to the
confession and catechism every year, that hereby they might
the better know who had changed their sentiments, and differed
from the received faith. This practice was perfectly agreeable
to the Geneva discipline ; Calvin himself, as hath been shewn,
being in judgment for persecuting heretics ; and Beza having
wrote a treatise, anno 1600, to prove the lawfulness of punish-
ing them. This book was translated from the Latin into the
Low Dutch language by Bogerman, afterwards president of
the synod of Dort, and published with a dedication, and re-
commendation of it to the magistrates. The consequence of
this was, that very severe placarts were published against the
anabaptists in Friesland and Groningen, whereby they were
forbidden to preach ; and all persons prohibited from letting
their houses and grounds to them, under the penalty of a large
fine, or confinement to bread and water for fourteen days. If
(1) Braudt. Hist. V. 2. I. 17.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 305
they offended the third time, they were to be banished the city,
and the jurisdiction thereof. Whosoever was discovered to
re-baptize any person, should forfeit twenty dollars ; and upon
a second conviction to be put to bread and water, and then
be banished. Unbaptized children were made incapable of
inheriting ; and if any one married out of the reformed church,
he was declared incapable of inheriting any estate, and the
children made illegitimate.
But the controversy that made the greatest noise, and pro-
duced the most remarkable effects, was that carried on between
the Calvinists and Arminians. Jacobus Arminius, one of the
professors of divinity at Leyden, disputing in his turn about
the doctrine of predestination, advanced several things differ-
ing from the opinions of Calvin on this article, and was in a
few months after warmly opposed by Gomarus his colleague,
who held, that "It was appointed by an eternal decree of God,
who amongst mankind shall be saved, and who shall be
damned." This was indeed the sentiment of most of the
clergy of the United Provinces, who therefore endeavoured
to run down Arminius and his doctrine with the greatest zeal,
in their private conversations, public disputes, and in their
very sermons to their congregations, charging him with inno-
vations, and of being a follower of the ancient heretical monk
Pelagius; whereas the government was more inclinable to
Arminius's scheme, as being less rigid in its nature, and more
iutelligible by the people, and endeavoured all they could to
prevent these differences of the clergy from breaking out into
an open quarrel, to the disturbance of the public peace. But
the ministers of the predestinarian party would enter into no
treaty for peace : the remonstrants were the objects of their
furious zeal, whom they called mamelukes, devils, and
plagues ; animating the magistrates to extirpate and destroy
them, and crying out from the pulpits, " We must go
through thick and thin, without fearing to stick in the mire t
we know what Elijah did to Baal's priests." And when the
time drew near for the election of new magistrates, they pray-
2r
306 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
ed to God for suck men, ^ as would be zealons even to blood,
though it were to cost the whole trade of their cities."
They also accused them of keeping up a correspondence
tirab the Jesuits and Spaniards, and of ajiesign to betray their
country to them.
These proceedings gave great disturbance to the magistrates,
especially as many of the clergy took great liberties with them,
furiously inveighing against them in their sermons, as enemies
to the church, and persecutors ; as libertines and free-thinkers,
wliu hated the sincere ministers of God, and endeavoured to
ism them out of their office. This conduct, together with
their obstinate refusal of all measures of accommodation, and
peace with the remonstrants, so incensed the magistrates, that
in several cities they suspended some of the warmest and most
seditious of them, and prohibited them from the public exer-
of their ministerial function ; particularly Gezelius of
Rotterdam, and afterwards Rosasus, minister at the Hague,
t.er endeavouring to make a schism in the church, and exhort-
ing the people to break off communion with their brethren.
Being thus discarded, they assumed to themselves the name of
the persecuted church, and met together in private houses,
absolutely refusing all communion with the remonstrant mini-
sters and party, in spite of all the attempts made use of to
reconcile and unite them.
What the ministers of the contra-Temonstrant party aimed
at, was the holding a national council ; which at length, after
a long opposition, was agreed to in the assembly of the States-
General, who appointed Dort for the place of the meeting.
Prince Maurice of Orange, the Stadthokler, effectually pre-
pared matters for holding the said assembly ; and as he
declared himself openly for the contra-remonstrant party, not
for that he was of their opinions in religion, being rather in-
clined to those of Arminius, but because he thought them the
best friends to his family, he took care that the council
should consist of such persons as were well affected to them.
In order to this his excellency changed the government of
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 307
most of the towns of Holland, deposed those magistrates who
were of the remonstrant persuasion, or that favoured them in
the business of the toleration, and filled up their places with
contra-remonstrants, or such as promoted their interests;
making use of the troops of the states, to obviate all op-
position.
The consequence of this was the imprisonment of several
great men of the remonstrant persuasion, such as the advocate
Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius, and others ; and the suspension, or
total deprivation of a considerable number of the remonstrant
clergy, such as Vitenbogart, of the Hague, Grovinckhovius,
of Rotterdam, Grevius, and others, by particular synods met
together for that purpose, and to prepare things, and appoint
persons for the ensuing national one at Dort. The person*
fixed on were generally the most violent of the contra-remon-
strant party, and who had publicly declared, that they
would not enter into communion with those who differed from
them, nor agree to any terms of moderation and peace. There
were also several foreign Divines summoned to this council,
who were most of them in the Calvinistic scheme, and pro-
fessed enemies to the Arminians.
The lay commissioners also, who were chosen hy the States,
were most of them very partial contra-remonstrants ; and two
or three of them, who seemed more impartial than the others,
were hardly suffered to speak ; and if they did, were presently
suspected, and represented by letters sent to the states, and
Prince Maurice, at the Hague, as persons that favoured the
remonstrants ; which was then considered as a crime against
the government, insomuch, that by these insinuations, they
were in danger of being stripped of all their employments.
The session and first opening of this venerable assembly, * was
Nov. 13, 1618. John Bogerman was chosen president of it •
the same worthy and moderate Divine, who had before tran-
(1) The Council of Dort, A. C. 1618.
2*2
308 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
slated into Low Dutch Beza's Treatise, to prove the lawful-
ness of punishing heretics, with a preface recommendatory to
the civil magistrate ; chosen not by the whole synod, but by
the Low Country divines only, the foreigners not being allow-
ed any share in the election.
At the fifth session the remonstrants petitioned the synod,
that a competent number of their friends might have leave to
appear before them, and that the citation might be sent to the
whole body, and not to any single person, to the end that they
might be at liberty to send such as they should judge best
qualified to defend their cause ; and particularly insisted,
that Grovinckhovius and Goulart miirht be of the number.
One would have thought that so equitable a request should
have been readily granted. But they were told, that it could
not be allowed that the remonstrants should pass for a distinct
body, or make any deputation of persons in their common
name to treat of their affairs ; and agreeably to this declara-
tion, the summons that were given out were not sent to the
remonstrants as a body or part of the synod, but to such par-
ticular persons as the synod thought fit to choose out of them ;
which was little less than citing them as criminals before a
body of men, which chiefly consisted of their professed ad-
versaries.1 When they first appeared in the^ synod, and
Episcopius in the name of the rest of them talked of entering
into a regular conference about the points in difference, they
were immediately given to understand, that no conference was
intended ; but that their only business was to deliver their sen-
timents, and humbly to wait for the judgment of the council
concerning them.
Episcopius, in the name of his brethren, declared, that they
did not own the synod for their lawful judges, because most of
that body were their avowed enemies, and fomenters and pro-
moters of the unhappy schism amongst them ; upon which
they were immediately reprimanded by the president, for im-
(1) Act Syn. Dord. Sess. 22.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 306
peaching and arraigning their authority, and presuming to
prescribe laws to those whom the States-General had appoint-
ed for their judges. The Divines of Geneva added upon this
head, " That if people obstinately refused to submit to the
lawful determinations of the church, there then remained two
methods tp be used against them ; the one, that the civil magis-
trate might stretch out his arm of compulsion ; the other that
the church might exert her power, in order to separate and cut
ofF, by a public sentence, those who violated the laws of God.
After many debates on this head, between the synod and the
remonstrants, who adhered to their resolution of not owning
the synod for their judges, they were turned out of it, by
Bogcrnian the president, with great insolence and fury ; to
the high dissatisfaction of many of the foreign Divines.
After the holy synod had thus rid themselves of the remon-
strants, whose learning; and ffood sense would have rendered
them exceeding troublesome to tills assembly, they proceeded
to fix the faith ; and as they had no opposition to fear, and
were almost all of one side, at least in the main points, they
agreed in their articles and canons, and in their sentence
against the remonstrant clergy, who had been cited to appear
before them ; which was to this effect : " They beseeched and
charged in the name of Christ, all and singular the ministers
of the churches throughout the United Netherlands, &c. that
they forsake and abandon the well-known five articles of the
remonstrants, as being false, and no other than secret magazines
of errors. — And whereas some, who are gone out from amongst
us, calling themselves remonstrants, have, out of private views
and ends, unlawfully violated the discipline and government
of the church — have not only trumped up old errors, but
hammered out new ones too — have blackened and rendered
odious the established doctrine of the church with impudent
slanders and calumnies, without end or measure ; have filled
all places with scandal, discord, scruples, troubles of con-
science— all which heinous offences ought to be restrained
and punished in clergymen with the severest censures : there-
fore this national synod — being assured of its own authority —
310 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
doth hereby declare and determine, that those ministers, who
hav^ acted in the churches as heads of factions, and teachers
of errors, are guilty, and convicted of having violated our
holy religion, having made a rent in the unity of the church,
and given very great scandal : and as for those who were cited
before this synod, that they are besides guilty of intolerable
disobedience — to the commands of the venerable synod : for
all which reasons the synod doth, in the first place, discharge
the aforesaid cited persons from all ecclesiastical administra-
tions, and deprive them of their offices ; judging them like-
wise unworthy of any academical employment. —And as for
the rest of the remonstrant clergy, they are hereby recom-
mended to the provincial synods, classes, and consistories —
who are to take the utmost care — that the patrons of errors be
prudently discovered ; that all obstinate, clamorous, and fac-
tious disturbers of the church under their jurisdiction, be
forthwith deprived of their ecclesiastical and academical offi-
ces.— And they the said provincial synods are therefore ex-
horted— to take a particular care, that they admit none into
the ministry who shall refuse to subscribe, or promise to preach
the doctrine, asserted in these sy nodical decrees ; and that they
suffer none to continue in the ministry, by whose public dis-
sent the doctrine which hath been so unanimously approved
by all the members of this synod, the harmony of the clergy,
and the peace of the church may be again disturbed — And they
most earnestly and humbly beseech their g-racious God, that
their High Mightinesses may suffer and ordain this whole-
some doctrine, which the synod hath faithfully expressed — to
be maintained alone, and in its purity within their provinces
— and restrain turbulent and unruly spirits — and may likewise
put in execution the sentence pronounced against the above
mentioned persons — and ratify and confirm the decrees of the
synod by their authority.' '
The states readily obliged them in this christian and cha-
ritable request ; for as soon as the synod was concluded, the
old advocate Barnevelt was beheaded, who had been a zea-
lous and hearty friend to the remonstrants and their princi-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 311
pies, and Grotius condemned to perpetual imprisonment;
and because the cited ministers would not promise wholly, and
always to abstain from the exercise of their ministerial func-
tions, the states passed a resolution for the banishing of them
on pain, if they did not submit to it, of being treated as dis-
turbers of the public peace.' And though they only begged a
respite of the sentence for a few days, to put their affairs ia
order, and to provide themselves with a little money to sup-
port themselves and families in their banishment, even this was
unmercifully denied them, and they were hurried away next
morning by four o'clock, as if they "had been enemies to the
religion and liberties of their country.
Such was the effect of this famous presbyterian synod,
who behaved themselves as tyrannically towards their bre-
thren, as any prelatical council whatsoever could do ; and to
the honour of the church of England it must be said, that
they owned their synodical power, and concurred by their
deputies, Carleton Bishop of Landaff, Hall, Davenant, and
Ward, in condemning the remonstrants^ in excommunicating
and depriving them, and turning them out of their churches,
and in establishing both the discipline and doctrines of Gene-
va in the Netherlands. For after the council was ended,
the remonstrants were every where driven out of their
churches, and prohibited from holding any private meetings.
and many of them banished on this very account. The reader
will find a very particular relation of these transactions, in the
learned Gerard Brandt's History of the Reformation of the
Low Countries, to which I must refer him.
SECT. V.
Persecutions in Great' Brit-am.
If we look into our own country, we shall find numerous
proofs of the same antichrist ian spirit and practice. Even
our first reformers, who had seen the fiames which the papists
312 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
Lad kindled against their brethren, yet lighted fires themselves
to consume those who differed from them. Cranmer's hands
were stained with the blood of several.1 He had a share in
the prosecution and condemnation of that pious and excellent
martyr John Lambert, and consented to the death of Ann
Askew, who were burnt for denying the corporal presence ;
which, though Cranmer then believed > he saw afterwards
reason to deny.
In the year 1519, Joan Bocher was condemned for some
enthusiastical opinions about Christ, and delivered over to the
secular power. The sentence being returned to the council,
King Edward VI. was moved to sign a warrant for her being
burnt, but could not be prevailed with to do it. Cranmer
endeavoured to persuade him by such arguments, as rather
silenced than satisfied the young king : so he set his hand to
the warrant with tears in his eyes, saying to the archbishop,
that if he did wrong, since it was in submission to his autho-
rity, he should answer for it to God. Though tills struck
Cranmer with horror, yet he at last put the sentence in execu-
tion against her.
About two years after one George Van Pare, a Dutchman,
was accused, for saying, u That God the Father was only
God, and that Christ was not very God." And though he
was a person of a very holy life, yet because he would not
abjure, he was condemned for heresy, and burnt in Smithfield.
The Archbishop himself was afterwards burnt for heresy ;
which, as Fox observed, many looked on as a just retaliation
from the providence of God, for the cruel scvereties he had
used towards others.
The controversy about the Popish habits was one of the
first that arose amongst the English reformers. Cranmer and
Ridley were zealous for the use of them, whilst other very
pious and learned Divines were for laying them aside, as the
badges of idolatry and antichrist. Amongst these was Dr.
(1) Burnett's Hist. Ref. Vol. II. p. 106, 107.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 313
Hooper, nominated to the bishoprick of Gloucester : but be-
cause he refused to be consecrated in the old vestments, he
was by order of council first silenced, and then confined to his
own house ; and afterwards, by Cranmer's means, committed
to the Fleet prison, where he continued several months.
*In the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, A. C. 1559,
• an act passed for the uniformity of common prayer, and ser-
vice in the church, and administration of the sacraments ; by
which the queen and bishops were empowered to ordain such
ceremonies in worship, as they should think for the honour of
God, and the edification of his church. This act was rigour-
ously pressed, and great severities used to such as could not
comply with it. Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, made
the clergy subscribe to use the prescribed rites and habits ;
and cited before him many of the most famous Divines who
scrupled them, and would allow none to be presented to livings,
or preferred in the church, without an intire conformity. He
summoned the whole body of the London pastors and curates to
appear before him at Lambeth, and immediately suspended 37,
who refused to subscribe to the unity of apparel ; and signified
to them, that within three months they should be totally de-
prived, if they would not conform. So that many churches
were shut up ; and though the people were ready to mutiny
for want of ministers, yet the archbishop was deaf to all their
complaints, and in his great goodness and piety was resolved
they should have no sacraments or sermons without the sur-
plice and the cap. And in order to prevent all opposition to
church tyranny, the Star Chamber published a decree for
sealing up the press, and prohibiting any person to print or
publish any book against the queen's injunctions, or against
the meaning of them. This decree was signed by the bishops
of Canterbury and London.
This rigid and fanatical zeal for habits and coremonies,
caused the Puritans to separate from the established church.
(1) Queen Elizabeth.
e 2s
314 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
and to hold private assemblies for worship. But the queen
and her prelates soon made them feel their vengeance. Their
meetings were disturbed, and those who attended them appre-
hended, and sent in large numbers, men and women, to Bride-
well, for conviction. Others were cited into the spiritual
courts, and not discharged till after long attendance and great
charges. Subscriptions to articles of faith were violently
pressed upon the clergy, and about one hundred of them were
deprived, anno 1572, for refusing to submit to them. Some
were closely imprisoned, and died in jail, through poverty
and want.
And that serious piety and christian knowledge might gain
ground, as well as uniformity, the bishops, by order of the
queen, put down the prophesyings of the clergy, anno 1574,
who were forbid to assemble as they had done for some years,
to discourse with one another upon religious subjects and ser-
mons ; and as some serious persons of the laity were used to
meet on holidays, or after they had done work, to read the
scriptures, and to improve themselves in christian knowledge,
the parsons of the parishes were sent for, and ordered to sup-
press them.
Eleven Dutchmen, who were anabaptists, were condemned
in the consistory of St. Paul to the fire, for heresy ; nine of
whom were banished, and two of them burnt alive in Smith-
field. In the year 1583, Copping and Thacker, two Puritan
ministers, were hanged for non- conformity. It would be end-
less to go through all the severities that were used in this reign
upon the account of religion. As the queen was of a very
high and arbitrary temper, she pressed uniformity with great
violence, and found bishops enough, Parker, Aylmer, Whit-
gift, .and others, to justify and promote her measures ; who
either entered their sees with persecuting principles, or em-
braced them soon after their entrance, as best befitting the ends
of their promotion. Silencings, deprivations, imprisonments,
gibbets, and stakes, upon the account of religion, were some
of the powerful reasonings of those times. The bishops rioted
in power, and many of thera abused it to the most cruet
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 315
oppressions. The cries of innocent prisoners, widowed wives,
and starving children, made no impression on their hearts.
Piety and learning- with them were void of merit. Refusal of
subscriptions, and non-conformity, were crimes never to be
forgiven. A particular account of these things may be seen
in Mr. Neal's history of the Puritans, who hath done some
justice to that subject.
I shall only add, that the court of high commission estab-
lished in this reign, by the instigation of Whitgift, Archbishop
of Canterbury, by which the commissioners were im powered
to inquire into all misdemeanors, by all such ways and means
as they could devise, and thought necessary ; to examine per-
sons upon oath, and to punish those who refused the oath by
fine or imprisonment, according to their discretion, was an
high stretch of the prerogative, and had a very near resem-
blance to the courts of inquisition ; and the cruelties that were
practised in it, and the exorbitant fines that were levied by it
in the two following reigns, made it the universal abhorrence
of the nation, so that it was dissolved by parliament, with a
clause that no such court should be erected for the future.
*King James I. was bred up in the kirk of Scotland, which
professed the faith and discipline of those called Puritans in
England ; and though he blessed God, u For honouring him
to be king over such a kirk, the sincerest kirk in. the world,'*
yet, upon his accession to the English throne, he soon shewed
his aversion to the constitution of that kirk ; and to their
brethren, the puritans in England. These were solicitous
for a farther reformation in the church, which the bishops
opposed, instilling this maxim into the king, 2U No Bishop,
no King ;" which, as stale and false a maxim as it is, hath
been lately trumped up, and publicly recommended, in a
sermon on the 30th of January. In the conference at Hamp-
ton Court, his Majesty not only sided with the bishops, but
assured the puritan ministers, who were sent for to it, that
(1) James I. (2) Wilson.
2s2
316 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
" he had not called the assembly together for any innovations,
for that he acknowledged the government ecclesiastical, as it
then was, to have been approved by God himself;" giving
them to understand, that " if they did not conform, he would
cither hurry them out of the kingdom, or else do worse."1
And these reasonings of the king were so strong, that Whitgift,
Archbishop of Canterbury, with an impious and sordid flat-
tery said, " lie was verily persuaded that the king spoke by
the spirit of God."
It was no wonder that the bishops, thus supported by an
inspired king, should get an easy victory over the puritans ;
which possibly they w ould not have done, had his majesty
been absent, and the aids of bis inspiration withdrawn ; since
the archbishop did not pretend that himself or his brethren
had any share of it. But having thus gotten the victory, they
strove by many methods of violence to maintain it ; and used
such severities towards the non-conformists, that they were
forced to seek refuge in foreign countries. The truth is, this
conference at Hampton Court was never intended to satisfy the
puritans, but as a blind to introduce episcopacy into Scotland,
and to subvert the constitution and establishment of that church.
His majesty, in one of his speeches to his Parliament, tells
them, that " he was never violent and unreasonable in his
profession of religion." I believe all mankind will now
acquit him of any violent and unreasonable attachment to the
protestant religion and liberties. He added in the same speech,
it may be questioned whether by inspiration of the spirit,
" I acknowledge the Roman church to be our mother church,
although defiled with some infirmities and corruptions." And
he did behave as a very dutiful son of that mother church,
by the many favours he shewed to the papists during his
reign, by his proclamations for uniformity in religion, and
encouraging and supporting his bishops in their persecutions
of such as differed from, or could not submit to them.
Bancroft, promoted to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury,
(1) Berlin's Life of Laud, p, 58.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 317
was, as the historian1 calls him, " A sturdy piece," a cruel
and inflexible persecutor, treating the non-conformists with
the greatest rigour and severity ; and who, as Heylin tells us>
2U was resolved to break them, if they would not bow." He
put the canons and constitutions agreed on A. C. 1603, furi-
ously into execution, and such as stood out against them, he
either deprived or silenced. And indeed, as the aforemen-
tioned author says, 3U Who could stand against a man of such
a spirit, armed with authority, having the law on his side,
and the king to his friend ? During his being archbishop he
deprived, silenced, suspended, and admonished, above three
hundred ministers. The violencies he and his brethren used
in the high-commission courts, rendered it a public grievance.
AiC JEvery man must conform to the episcopal way, and quit
his hold in opinion or safety. That court was the touchstone,
to try whether men were metal for their stamp ; and if they
were not soft enough to take such impressions as were put
upon them, they were made malleable there, or else they
could not pass current. This was the beginning of that mis-
chief, which, when it came to a full ripeness, made such a
bloody tincture in both kingdoms, as never will be got out of
the bishop's lawn sleeves."
But nothing displeased the sober part of tiie nation more,
than the publication of the Book of Sports, which the
bishops procured from the king, and which came out with a
command, enjoining all ministers to read it to their parishi-
oners, and to approve of it ; and those who did not, were
brought into the high commission, imprisoned, and suspended ;
this book being only a trap to catch some conscientious men^
that they could not otherwise, with all their cunning, ensnare.
" These, and such like machinations of the bishops," says
my author, " to maintain their temporal greatness, ease, and
plenty, made the stones in the walls of their palaces, and the
beam in the timber, afterwards cry out, moulder away, and
(1) Wilson. (2) Life of Laud, p. 58. (3) Wilson. (4) Wilson. (5) Ibid
318 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
come to nothing; and caused their light to go out offensive
to the nostrils of the rubbish of the people.
Indeed many of the king's bishops, such as Bancroft, Neal,
and Laud, who was a reputed papist in Oxford, and a man of
a dangerous turbulent spirit, were fit for any work ; and as
they do not appear to have had any principles of real piety
themselves, they were the fittest tools that could be made use
of to persecute those who had. Neal, when he was Bishop
of Litchfield and Coventry, prosecuted one Edward Wight-
man, for broaching erroneous doctrine, and having canonically
condemned him, got the king's warrant for his execution ;
and he was accordingly burnt in Litchfield. One Legat also
was prosecuted and condemned for heresy, by King Bishop of
London, and expired in the flames of Smithfield. fie denied
the divinity of our Saviour, according to the Athanasian mode
of explaining it ; but as Fuller tells us, he was excellently skil-
led in scripture, and his conversation very unblameable. But
as these sacrifices were unacceptable to the people, the king
preferred, that heretics hereafter, though condemned, should
silently and privately waste themselves away in prison, rather
than to amuse others with the solemnity of a public execution.
In the reign of the Royal Martyr,1 the church grew to
the height of her glory and power ; though such is the fate of
all human things, that she soon sickened, languished, and
died. Laud, carried all before him, and ruled both church
and kingdom with a rod of iron. His beginning and rise is
thus described by Archbishop Abbot, his pious and worthy
predecessor.
2" His life in Oxford was to pick quarrels in the lectures
of the public readers, and to advertise them to the then Bishop
of Durham, that he might fill the ears of King James with
discontents against the honest men that took pains in their
places, and settled the truth, which he called pur itanism, in
their auditors.
<1) Charles I. (2) Rapin, vol. II. p. 278. 2d edit.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 319
u He made it his work to see what books were in the press,
and to look over epistles dedicatory, and prefaces to the rea-
der, to see what faults might be found.
" It was an observation what a sweet man this was like to
be, that the first observable act he did, was the marrying the
Earl of Devonshire to the Lady Rich, when it was notorious
to the world that she had another husband, and the same a
nobleman, who had divers children then living by her. King
James did for many years take this so ill, that he would never
hear of any great preferment of him : insomuch that the
Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Williams, who taketh upon him to be
the first promoter of him, hath many times said, that when he
made mention of Laud to the King, his Majesty was so averse
from it, that he was constrained oftentimes to say, that he
would never desire to serve that master, who could not remit
one fault to his servant. Well, in the end he did conquer it,
to get him to the Bishoprick of St. David's ; which he had
not long enjoyed, but he began to undermine his benefactor,
as at this day it appeareth. The Countess of Buckingham
told Lincoln, that St. David's was the man that undermined
him with her son. And verily, such is his aspiring nature,
that he will underwork any man in the world, so that he may
gain by it"
'He had a peculiar enmity to Archbishop Abbot, a man of
an holy and unblameable life, because he had informed King
James that Laud was a reputed papist in Oxford, and of a
dangerous, turbulent spirit ; and as James I. was wrought up
into an incurable animosity against the puritans, " this was
thought to be fomented by the papists, whose agent Bishop
Laud was suspected to be : and though the king was pleased
with asservations to protest his incentive spirit should be kept
under, that the flame should not break out by any preferment
from him ; yet getting into Buckingham's favour, he grew into
such credit, that he was thougtit 16 be the bellows whicL
(1) Wilson.
320 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
blew those flames that were every where rising in the
nation.
" For the papists used all the artifices they could to make
a breach between the king and his people ; and to accomplish
this, amongst other methods, they sowed the seeds of division
betwixt puritan and protestant ; for all those were puritans,
with this high grown Armenian popish party, that held in
judgment the doctrine of the reformed churches, or in practice
live according to the doctrine publicly taught in the church
of England. And they attributed the name of protestant,
" 1. To such papists, as either out of policy, or by
popish indulgence, held outward communion with the church
of England.
" 2. To such protestants, as were either tainted with,
or inclinable to their opinions.
" 3. To indifferent men, who embrace always that religion,
ihat shall be commanded by authority. Or,
" 4. To such neutrals as care for no religion, but such as
stands with their own liking ; so that they allow the church
of England the refuse both of their religion and ours.7'
Thus far Wilson : and though Laud might be, as the
same historian relates, of "a motley form of religion" by
himself, yet the whole course of his tyrannical administration
gave but too just reason for suspicion, that his strongest incli-
nations were towards Rome and Popery. * The first parlia-
ment of Charles I. re-assembled at Oxford in 1625, complain-
ed that Popery and Arminianism were countenanced by a
strong party in the kingdom ; and Neal Bishop of Win-
chester, and Laud, then of St. David's, were chiefly looked
upon as the heads and protectors of the Arminians, nay, as
favourers of Popery.
The reasons of this suspicion were many. He was drove
on by a rigid, furious, and fanatical zeal for all the ceremonies
of the church of England, even for such as seemed the least
(l) Rapin, vol. II. p. 240. Cora. Hist. vol. III. p. 35.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 321
necessary. And not content with these, he promoted and
procured the introduction of many others, which never had
been enjoined by lawful authority.
January 16, 1630, he consecrated, as Bishop of London,
St. Catharine Creed Church, with all the fopperies of a popish
superstition. iaatthe bishop's approach to the west door,
some that were prepared for it, cried with a loud voice,
" Open, open, ye everlasting doors, that the king of glory
may enter in." Immediately enters Laud. Then falling
down upon his knees, with his eyes lifted up, and kis arms
spread abroad, he cried out u This place is holy : the ground
is holy : in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I
pronounce it holy." Then he took up some of the dust, and
threw it up into the air several times, in his going up towards
the chancel. When they approached near to the rail, and
communion table, the bishop bowed towards it several times ;
and returning, they went round the chujch in procession,
singing the 100th psalm ; after that the 19th psalm ; and
then said a form of prayer, " Lord Jesus Christ, &c." con-
cluding, " We consecrate this church, and separate it unto
thee as holy ground, not to be profaned any more to com-
mon use."
u After this the bisjjop being near the communion table,
and taking a written book in his hand, pronounced curses
upon those that should afterwards profane that holy place, by
musters of soldiers, or keeping profane law courts, or carrying
burdens through it ; and at the end of every curse he bowed
towards the east, and said, " Let all the people say," Amen.
After this he pronounced a number of blessings upon all those
who had any hand in framing and building of that sacred and
beautiful church, and those that had given, or should hereafter
give any chalices, plate, ornaments, or utensils ; and at the
end of every blessing he bowed towards the East, saying,
" Let all the people say," Amen.
(1) Rapin, vol. II. p. 286.
2t
322 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION*
" After this followed tlie sermon ; which being ended,
the bishop consecrated and administered the sacrament in
manner following*.
" As he approached the communion table, he made many
lowly bowings, ai;d coming up to the side of the table, where
the bread and wine were covered, he bowed seven times ; and
then, after the reading of many prayers, he came near the
bread, and gently lifted up the corner of the napkin wherein
the bread was laid; and when he beheld the bread, he laid it
down again, flew back a step or two, bowed three several
times towards it; then he drew near again, and opened the
napkin, and bowed as before. Then he laid his hand on the
cup, which was full of wine, with a cover upon it; which he
lot go, then went back, and bowed thrice towards it. Then
he came near again ; and lifting up the cover of the cup,
looked info it, and seeing the wine, he let fall the cover again,
retired back, and bowed as before. Then he received the
a eminent, and gave it to some principal men ; after which
many prayers being said, the solemnity of the consecration
ended."
In this manner have I seen high mass celebrated ponti-
fically. And from whence did the pious Laud learn all these
kneelings, bowings, throwingsof dust, cursings, blessings, and
adorations of the sacramental elements ; from the sacred scrip-
tures, or the writings of the primitive fathers ? No : it was
an exact copy of the Roman Pontifical, which was found in
his study ; and though he aliedged in his defence that it was
a form communicated by Bishop Andrews to him, it was ridi-
culous, since Andrews himself had it from the same pontifical.
*The next year, 1632, Henry Sheffield, Esq. recorder of
Sarum, was fined in the Star Chamber ^"500. on the follow-
ing occasion. There was in the city of Salisbury a church
called St. Edmund's, whose windows were painted, with the
history of the creation; where God the Father was represent-
(I) Rushw. Tom. II. p. 153,. 156.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 323
ed in the form of an old man, creating the world during the
first six days, but painted sitting on the seventh, to denote the
day of rest. In expressing the creation of the sun and moon,
the painter had put in God's hand a pair of compasses, as if
he was ooino* to measure them. The recorder was offended
with this profaneness ; and, by an order of vestry, took down
those painted glasses, and broke some of the panes with his
stick, and ordered others to be put up in their room. Upon
this an information was exhibited against him in the Star
Chamber, by the attorney-general ; where Sberfield was for
this reason charged with being ill-affected to the discipline of
the Church of England, and the government thereof by
bishops, because he had broken excellent pictures of the
creation, and fined for his crime in the sum above mentioned,
committed to the Fleet, removed from his recordership, and
bound to his good behaviour. Nor was Laud ashamed, in
justification of such pictures, to urge, as the papists continually
do, that place in Dan. vii. 9, in which 'God is described as
ct the ancient of days ;" shewing himself a worse divine, or a
more popishly affected one, than the Earl of Dorset, who then
sat with him in the court, and said, that by that text was
meant " the eternity of God, and not God to be pictured as
an old man, creating the world with a pair of compasses.
But I wish" added the Earl, " there were no image of the
Father, neither in the church, nor out of the church ; for,
at the best, they are but vanities and teachers of lies."
In 1633, * Laud was made Archbishop of Canterbury ;
and having observed that the placing the communion table in
the body of the church, or at the entrance of the chancel, was
not only a prostitution of the table to ordinary and sordid
uses, but the chancel looked like an useless building, fit only
for a schooling and parish-meeting, though originally design-
ed for the most solemn office of religion; to redeem these
places, as he termed it, from profaneness, and restore them to
(1) Cora. Hist. vol. HI. p. 7S.
2t2
324 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
the primitive use of the hojy sacrament, the archbishop used
Iiis utmost diligence to remove the communion table from the
body of the church, and fix it at the upper end of the chan-
cel, and secure it from the approach of dogs, and all servile
uses, by railing it in, and obliging the people to come up to
those rails to receive the sacrament with more decency and
order. This affair, says Lord Clarendon, he prosecuted more
passionately than was fit for the season, and created disputes
in numberless places ;* so that the high commission had fre-
quent occasions to punish the ministers, who were suspected
of too little zeal for the Church of England. And as since the
reformation the altars were changed into communion tables,
and placed in the middle of the chancel, to avoid supersti-
tion ; many imagined, and that with too much reason, the
tables were again turned into altars with intent to revive a
superstitious worship.
In the year 1634;,2 he set up and repaired Popish images in
the glass windows of his chapel at Lambeth ; particularly one
of God the Father, in the form of a little old man. This
Laud himself owned, that he repaired the windows at no
small cost, by the help of the fragments that remained, and
vindicated the thing. He introduced also copes, candlesticks,
tapers, and such like trumperies. So that L'Estrange, whom
no man will charge with partiality against the archbishop,
says of him : 3U The Archbishop of Canterbury stands aspers-
ed, in common fame, as a great friend at least, and patron of
the Romish Catholics, if he were not of the same belief. To
which I answer by concession : true it is, he had too much
and long favoured the Romish faction — though not the Romish
faith. He tampered indeed to introduce some ceremonies,
bordering upon superstition, disused by us, and abused by
them. From whence the Romanists collected such a good
disposition in him to their tenets, as they began not only to
hope, but in good earnest to cry him up for their proselyte.
(1) Rapin, vol. II. p. 291. (2) Rush, ad An. 1634. p. 270, 280.
(3) Id. V. III. p. 1326.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 325
Under the year 1635, l the author of the notes to the Com-
plete History tells us, that one of the great offences taken by
wise and good men against the archbishop, was the new
attempt of reconciling the Church of England to the Church
of Rome. The design was to accommodate the articles of
tlie Church of England to the sense of the Church of Rome, for
the reconciliation of the two churches. Davenport, an English
Franciscan Friar, published a book to this purpose, under the
name of Franciscus de Sancta Clara, which was dedicated to the
king, and said to have been directed to Archbishop Laud.
And it was an article objected against him, that for the
advancement of popery and superstition in this realm, he had
wittingly and willingly harboured and relieved divers popish
priests aad Jesuits, and particularly Sancta Clara, who hath
written a popish and seditious book, wherein the thirty-nine
articles of the Church of England are much traduced and
scandalized, the said archbishop having divers conferences
with him, while he was writing the said book. The arch-
bishop did not seem to deny his acquaintance with the man,
nor with the design of the book ; but was rather afraid the
book would not answer the design.
The same author farther adds, that the best observations
on this matter were made by Mr. Rous, in a speech against
Dr. Cosin, March 16, 1640, " A second way by which this
army of priests ad vanceth this popish design, is the way of
treaty. This hath been acted both by writings and confer-
ence. Sancta Clara himself says, " Doctissimi eorum, qui-
buscunque egi." So it seems they have had conference toge-
ther. And Sancta Clara, on his part, labours to bring the
articles of our church to popery, and some of our side labour
to meet him in the way. We have a testimony that the great
arch-priest himself hath said : u It were no hard matter to
make a reconciliation, if a wise man had the handling: of it.''
Such was the good opinion which the papists had of Laud*
(l) Vol, III. p. 82.
326
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
and of his inclinations to popery, that it is certain they offered
Iiira a cardinal's cap. Eachard and others say he refused it.
*But the Lord Wiquefort, as cited by Mr. Oldmixon, informs
us, in his Treatise of the Ambassador and his Function, that
Laud treated with Count Rosetti, the popish agent in Eng-
land, for a pension of 48,000 livres a year; which if the Pope
would have settled upon him, he would not only have accepted
the cardinal's cap, but have gone to Rome, and have dwelt
with the Pope and his cardinals as long as he lived.
The bitter and relentless fury witli which, he treated the
puritans, and others, who were friends to the Church of Eng-
land, and some of the best protestants in the kingdom, is a.
demonstration that he was more papist than protestant. Of
the puritans he used to say, as Heylin tells us, that " they
were as bad as the papists;" and indeed he used them in a
much worse manner.
In the Considerations he presented to the King, " Anno
1629, for the better securing the Church Government," he
prayed his Majesty, amongst other things, that Emanuel and
Sydney Colleges in Cambridge, which are the nurseries of
puritanism, may from time to time be provided of grave and
orthodox men for their governors. In the several accounts of
his province, which lie sent to the King, we read almost of
nothing but conformity and non-conformity to the church,
refractory people to the church, peevish and disorderly men,
for preaching up the observation of the sabbath, breach of
church canons, wild, turbulent preachers, for preaching against
bowing at the name of Jesus, and in disgrace of the common
prayer book ; and. in consequence of these things, present-
ments, citations in i!*e high commission court, censures, sus-
pensions from preaching, and other like pious methods, to
reduce and reform them. 2 And so grievous and numerous
were the violencies he exercised on these and the like occa-
sions, in the star chamber, high commission, and spiritual
(I) Hist, of Stuarts, p. 118. (2) Com. Hist. vol. Ill, p. 90
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 327
courts, that many excellent and learned men were forced to
leave the kingdom, and retire to the West-Indies. And yet
even this was unmercifully forbidden them. For in the year
1637, a proclamation was issued to stop eight ships going to
New England ; and another warrant from the council, of
which Laud was one, to the Lord Admiral, to stop all ministers
unconformable to the discipline and ceremonies of the church9
who frequently transport themselves to the summer islands,
and other plantations ; and that no clergyman should be suf-
fered to go over, without approbation of the Lord Archbishop
of Canterbury, and Bishop of London. These prohibitions^
as the Complete Historian observes, increased the murmurs
and complaints of the people thus restrained, and raised the
cries of a double persecution, to be vexed at home, and not-
suffered to seek peace or refuge abroad.
But how were the papists treated all this while ? why with*
brotherly mildness and moderation. For whilst these severi-
ties were exercising against protestanis, there were many par-
dons and indulgencies granted to popish offenders. The
papists were in reality his favourites and friends.
On July 7, 1626,.1 Montague's books, intitled, "An
Appeal to Caesar," and " A Treatise of the Invocation of
Saints," were called in question by the House of Commons,
and reported to contain false, erroneous, papistical opinions.
For instance : " That the Church of Rome hath ever re-
mained firm, upon the same foundation of sacraments and
doctrines instituted by God. That the controverted points
(between the Church of England and that of Rome) are of a
lesser and inferior nature, of which a man may be ignorant,
without any danger of his soul at all. That images may be
used for the instruction of the ignorant, and excitation of devo-
tion. 2That there are- tutelar saints as well as angels." The
House of Commons voted his books to be contrary to the
established articles ; to tend to the King's dishonour, and to
(1) Bapiii, vol. II, p. 244, (2) Com. Hist. yoL III. p. 30.
328 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
the disturbance of church and state. And yet this zealous
protestant Bishop Laud was, as the Complete Historian assures
us, a a zealous friend to the person and opinions of Mr.
Montague ; * and made this entry in his diary on this affair.
" Jan. 29. Sunday. 1 understand what D. B. had collected
concerning the Cause, Book, and Opinions of Richard Mon-
tague, and what R. C. had determined with himself therein.
Methinks I see a cloud arising, and threatening the Church of
England ;" viz. because the popish opinions of this turbulent
priest were censured as contrary to the established articles of
the church of England. He was fit to be made one of Laud's
brethren ; and accordingly was preferred to the Bishoprick
of Chichester, anno 1629.
2 The author of the Remarks on the Complete Historian
farther tells us, under the year 1632, that great prejudice was
taken against some of Bishop Laud's churchmen, by one of them
protesting to die in the communion of the Church of Rome ;
Dr. Theodore Price, prebendary of Winchester, and sub-dean
of Westminster- Mr. Prynne affirmed, that this man, very
intimate with the archbishop, and recommended by him spe-
cially to the King to be a Welch Bishop, in opposition to the
Earl of Pembroke, and his chaplain Griffith Williams, soon
after died a reconciled papist, and received extreme unction
from a priest. The remarker adds, " It is strange partiality
in the Oxford Historian, to question this matter, when Laud
himself, in his MS notes upon that relation given by Mr.
Prynne, doth by no means deny the fact, but excuses the
using his interest for him; and says, c he was more inward
with another bishop, and who laboured his preferment more
than I.'
In the same year, 1632, 3 Mr. Frajicis Windbank was
made secretary of state by the interest of Bishop Laud, who
hath entered it in his Diary. " 1632. June 15. Mr. Fran-
cis Windbank, my old friend, was sworn Secretary of State ;
(1) P. 32. (2) Vol. ill. p. 67. (3; Com. Hist. p. 61
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 329
which place I obtained for him of my gracious master King
Charles." He proved so much a creature of the queen's, and
such an advocate and patron of all suffering papists and Jesuits,
that he had the character of a papist, and brought a very
great odium upon Laud who preferred him. That which
created him the more envy, was the turning out the old secre-
tary, Sir John Coke, who was displaced by Laud " for his
honest firmness against popery," as the author of the remarks
on the complete historian assures us, and for his hatred and
opposition to the Jesuits. This job was labouring for three
years' space and at last obtained by Laud's influence on the
King.
These instances, and many others which might be men-
tioned, are sufficient to discover what sort of a protestant Laud
was, and how he stood affected to the church of Rome. I
shall now consider his character for piety, which was exactly
of a piece with his protestantism.
He was a creature of the Duke of Buckingham, who was
one of the lewdest men in the kingdom, This man, as Arch-
bishop Abbot said of him, was the only inward counsellor
with Buckingham; " sitting with him sometimes privately
whole hours, and feeding his humour with malice and spite."
His marrying the Earl of Devonshire to the Lady Rich, though
she had another husband, is a glorious argument of his regard
to the laws of God, and particularly of his reverence for the
seventh commandment.
He gave, also, notable proofs of his zeal to maintain the
honour of the fourth. The liberties taken at Wakes, or an-
nual feasts of the dedication of churches, on Sundays, were
grown to a very high excess, and occasioned great and numer-
ous debaucheries. The lord chief justice Richardson,1 in
his circuit, made an order to suppress them, Laud com-
plained of this to the king, as an intrusion upon the ecclesi-
astical power ; upon which Richardson was severely repri-
(l) Rushw. vol. I. p. 196.
2u
530 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
manded, and forced to revoke the order. The justices of
the peace upon this drew up a petition to the king, shewing the
great inconveniences which would befal the country, if those
revels, church-ales and clerk-ales, upon the Lord's-day, were
permitted. But before the petition could be delivered, Laud
published by the king's order, the declaration concerning re-
creations on the lord's-day, " out of a pious care for the ser-
vice of God," as that declaration expresses it towards the con-
clusion of it. However, this " pions care" of Laud and the
king was resented by the soberest persons in the nation, as irre-
ligious and profane, as those revels had been the occasion of an
" infinite number of inconveniences ;" and the declaration for
publishing the lawfulness of them through all parish-churches,
1 " proved a snare to many ministers, very conformable to the
church of England, because they refused to read the same
publicly in the church, as was required : For upon this many
were suspended, and others silenced from preaching." An
instance of great piety, unquestionably this ; first to establish
the profanation of the Lord's-day by a public order, and then
to persecute and punish those ministers who could not, in con-
science, promote the ends of " so godly a zeal," by reading
the king's order for wakes and revels on the Lord's-day out of
that very place, where perhaps they had been just before pub-
lishing the command of the most high God, not to profane but
to keep it holy.
His treatment of Mr. Prynne may also be added, as another
instance of this prelate's exemplary love of virtue, and pious
zeal for the service of God. 2That gentleman published in
the year 1632 his Histrio-Mastix, or book against stage- plays ;
in which, with very large collections, he exposed the liberties
of the stage, and condemned the lawfulness of acting. Now,
because the court became greatly addicted to these entertain-
ments, and the queen was so fond of them, as meanly to sub-
mit to act a part herself in a pastoral ; therefore this treatise
<1) Rushw. vol. I. p. 196. (2) Com. Hist. p. 6T.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 331
against plays " was suspected" to be levelled against the court
and the queen ; and it " was supposed an innuendo," that in
the table of the book this reference was put, " women actors
notorious whores." Now mark the christian spirit, the burn-
ing zeal of the pious Laud. Prynne was prosecuted in the
star chamber by Laud's procurement, who shewed the book
to the king, and pointed at the offensive parts of it ; and em-
ployed Heylin to pick out all the virulent passages, and
" N. B. to give the severest turn to them ;" and carried these
notes to the attorney general for matter of information, and
urged him earnestly to proceed against the author.
Prynne was accordingly prosecuted ; and being sufficiently
convicted by suspicions, suppositions, and innuendoes, he was
sentenced, Laud sitting as one of his judges, to have his book
burnt in the rnost public manner ; to be himself put from the
bar, and made fer ever incapable of his profession ; to be ex-
cluded from the society of Lincoln's Inn, and degraded in
Oxford; to stand in the pillory in Westminster and Cheap-
side, and lose both his ears, one in each place ; with a paper
on his head, declaring his offence to be " an infamous libel"
against both their majesties, the slate and the government ; to
pay a fine of five thousand pounds, and to sufler perpetual im-
prisonment. Good God ! what cruelty and barbarity is here ?
what insolent sporting with men's fortunes, liberties, and
bodies ? What was the occasion of this bloody severity? A
gentleman's writing against the abuses of plays. Who ordered
the prosecution against him for writing against plays ? Arch-
bishop Laud. Who sat at the head of his judges, who
pronounced this infamous sentence ? Archbishop Laud. Ex-
cellent archbishop! how christian, how commendable his
zeal ! How gloriously must religion flourish under his archie-
piscopal inspection, and by his becoming u the most rever-
end" abettor, encourager, and great patron of plays on week
days, and revels on Sundays ?
1 'Tis true, he was for building colleges, repairing churches^
(T) Cora. Hist. p.
2v2
332 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
settling statutes for cathedrals, annexing commendaras to
small bishoprics, settling of tithes, building hospitals, aggran-
dizing the power, and encreasing the riches of the clergy ;
and these tilings may be esteemed arguments of his piety, and
of "the greatness of his soul above the ordinary extent of
mankind :" This I do not take on me to deny ; but it puts me
in mind of the Carthusian monk, mentioned by Philip de
Comines, in his " Commentaries of the Neapolitan war:"
" Comines was looking on the sepulchre of John Galeacius,
first duke of Milan of that name, in the Carthusian church of
Pavia, who had governed with great cruelty and pride, but
had been very liberal in his donations to the church and
clergy. As he was viewing it, one of the monks of the order
commended the virtue, and extolled the piety of Galeacius.
Why, says Comines, do you thus praise him as a saint ?
You see drawn on his sepulchre the ensigns of many people,
whom he conquered without right. " Oh," says the m/mk,
" it is our custom to call them saints, that have been our bene-
factors."
But let us pass on from his piety to his christian tenderness
and compassion, of which there are many very remarkable
instances on record.
1 The case of Mr. Prynne, I have already mentioned.
Another instance is that of the Rev. Mr. Peter Smart, who,
July 27, 1628, preached on the Lord's Day against the
innovations brought by Dr. Cosins into the cathedral church
of Durham ; such as fonts, candles, pictures, images, copes,
singings, vestments, gestures, prayers, doctrines, and the like.
Cosins demeaned himself during the sermon very turbulently,
and immediately afterwards summoned him before the high
commission ; by whom he was censured by two acts of seques-
tration, and one of suspension. After this they unlawfully
transmitted him to London, to answer there in the high com-
mission, for the same ^ause, before the inquisitors general for
the kingdom ; who sent him back again with proper instruc-
(1) Om. Hist. p. 58. Notes.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 333
tions to the high commission at York, where they fined him
^500. committed him to jail, detained him under great bonds,
excommunicated him, sequestred all his ecclesiastical livings,
degraded him, " ab omni gradu et dignitate clericali;" by
virtue of which degradation, his prebendship and parsonage
were both taken from him, and himself kept in jail. By these
oppressions his life was several times endangered, and himself
and children lost and spent above fourteen thousand pounds of
real estate, whereby they were utterly undone. The hand of
Laud was in all this evil, as appears by the book published by
Mr. Smart himself, with the title of " Canterbury's Cruelty."
The truth is, many of the most worthy and learned pro-
testant gentlemen and divines were treated by him with th@
utmost indignity and barbarity ; some of them dying in jail,
and others being made to undergo the most cruel bodily
punishments, for daring to oppose his arbitrary and supersti-
tious proceedings. No man of compassion can read his treat-
ment of Dr. Leighton, without being shocked and moved in
the same tender manner as the House of Commons were, who
several times interrupted, by their tears, the reading of the
Doctor's petition, which I shall here present my reader with
entire, and leave him to form what character he pleases of the
man that could contrive and carry on such a scene of bar-
barous and execrable cruelty.
To the Honourable and High Court of Parliament,
The humble Petition of Alexander Leighton, Prisoner
in the Fleet ;
W HUMBLY SHEWETH,
u How your much and long distressed petitioner, on the
17th of February gone ten years, was apprehended in Black-
Fryers, coming from the sermon, by a high commission
warrant (to which no subject's body is liable), and thence,
with a multitude of staves and bills, was dragged along (and
334 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
all the way reproached by the name of Jesuit and traitor) till
they brought him to London-House, where he was shut up,
and, by a strong guard, kept (without food) till seven of the
clock, till Dr. Laud, then Prelate of London, and Dr. Cor-
bet, then of Oxford, returned from Fulham-House, with a
troop attending. The jailer of Newgate was sent for, who
came with irons, and with a strong power of halberts and staves ;
they carried your petitioner through a blind, hollow way,
without pretence or examination ; and opening up a gate into
the street (which some say had not been opened since Queen
Mary's dajs) tley thrust him into a loathsome and ruinous
dog-hole, full of rats and mice, which had no light but a
little grate ; and ihe roof being uncovered, the snow and rain
beat in upon him, having do bedding, nor place to make a
fire, but the ruins of an old smoky chimney ; where he had
neither meat nor drink, from the Tuesday at night, till the
Thursday at noon. In this woeM place and doleful plight,
they kept him close, with two doors shut upon him, for the
space of fifteen weeks ; suffering none to come at him, till at
length his wife was only admitted.
" The fourth day after his commitment, the high commis-
sion pursuivants came (under the conduct of the sheriffs of
London) to your petitioner's house, and a mighty multitude
with them, giving out that they came to search for Jesuit's books.
There these violent fellows of prey laid violent hands upon your
petitioner's distressed wife, with such barbarous inhumanity,
as he is ashamed to express ; and so riiled every soul in the
house, holding a bent ?pistol to a child's breast of five years
old, threatening to kill him, rf he would not tell where the
books were ; through which the child was so affrighted, that
he never cast it. They broke open presses, chests, boxes,
the boards of the house, and every thing they found in
the way, though they were willing to open all. They, and
some of the sheriffs' men, spoiled, robbed, and carried away
all the books and manuscripts they found, with household
stuff, your petitioner's apparel, arms, and other things ; so
that they left nothing that liked them ; notwithstanding your
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 335
petitioner's wife told the sheriffs, they might come to reckon
for it. They carried also a great number of divers of your
petitioner's books, and other things, from one Mr. Archer's
house, as he will testify,
" Farther, your petitioner being denied the copy of his
commitment, by the jailor of Newgate, his wife, with some
friends, repaired to the sheriff, offering him bail, according to
the statute in that behalf; which being shewed by an attorney
at law, the sheriff replied, thai he wished the laws of the land,
and privileges of the subject, had never been named in the
parliament, &c. Your petitioner (having thus suffered in body,
liberty, family, estate, and house) at the end of fifteen weeks
was served with a subpoena, on information laid against him
by Sir Robert Heath, then his Majesty's attorney general i
whose dealing with your prisoner was full of cruelty and de-
ceit. In the mean time it did more than appear, to four phy-
sicians, that poison had been given him in Newgate ; for his
hair and skin came off in a sickness (deadly to the eye) in the
height whereof, as he did lie, censure was passed against him.
in the star chamber, without hearing (which had not been
heard of) notwithstanding of a certificate from four physicians,
and affidavit made by an attorney, of the desperateness of the
disease. But nothing would serve Dr. Laud, but the high-
est censure that ever was passed in that court to be put upon
him ; and so it was to be inflicted with knife, fire, and whip,
at and upon the pillory, with ten thousand pounds fine ; which
some of the lords conceived should never be inflicted, only it
was imposed fas on a dying man) to terrify others. But the said
doctor and his combinants, caused the said censure to be exe-
cuted the 26th day of November following (with a witness)
for the hang -man was armed with strong drink all the night
before in prison, and, with threatning words, to do it cruelly.
Your petitioner's hands being tied to a stake (besides all other
torments) he received thirty-six stripes with a treble cord;
after which, he stood almost two hours on the pillory, in cold
frost and snow, and suffered the rest : as cutting off the ear,
firing the face, and slitting of the nose ; so that he was made
33Q THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION*.
a theatre of misery to men and angels.'' [Here the compas*
sion of the house of commons was so great, that they were
generally in tears, and ordered the clerk to stop reading twice,
till they had recovered themselves.] " And being so broken
with his sufferings, that he was not able to go, the warden of
the Fleet would not suffer him to be carried in a coacli : but
he was forced to go by water, to the farther endangering of
his life ; returning to the jail after much harsh and cruel
usage, for the space of eight years, paying more for a chamber
than the worth of it (having not a bit of bread, nor a drop of
water allowed). The clerk of the Fleet, to top up your peti-
tioner's sufferings, sent for him to his office, and without
warrant, or cause given by your petitioner, set eight strong
fellows upon him, who tore his clothes, bruised his body, so
that he was never well, and carried him by head and heels
to that loathsome and common gaol ; where, besides the filthi-
ness of the place, and vileness of the company, divers contriv-
ances were laid for taking away the life of your petitioner,
as shall manifestly appear, if your honours will be pleased
to receive and peruse a schedule of that subject.
" Now the cause of all this harsh, cruel, and continued ill
usage, unparalleled yet upon any one since Britain was blessed
with Christianity, was nothing but a book written by your peti-
tioner, called " Sion's Plea against the Prelacy ; and that, by
the call of divers and many good Christians in the parliament
time, after divers refusals given by your petitioner ; who would
not publish it being done, till it had the view and approba-
tion of the best in the city, country, and university, and some
of the parliament itself : In witness whereof he had about 500
hands ; for revealing of whose names he was promised more
favors by Sir Robert Heath than he will speak of : But deny-
ing to turn accuser of his brethren, he was threatened with a
storm, which he felt to the full; wherein (through God's
mercy) he hath lived, though but lived; choosing rather to
lay his neck to the yoke for others, than to release himself
by others' sufferings.
" FartherP the petitioner was robbed of divers goods5 by
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 337
one Lightborn, Graves, and others, officers and servants of
the Fleet, amounting towards the value of thirty pounds, for
which Lightborn offered composition (by a second hand) upon
the hearing of the approach of parliament ; but your petitioner
("notwithstanding his necessity) refused to hearken to any such,
illegal and dangerous way. To innumerate the rest of your
petitioner's heavy pressures, would take up a volume ; with
which he will not burden your honours, till further oppor-
tunity.
u And therefore, he humbly and heartily entreateth, that
you would be graciously pleased to take this his petition into
your serious thoughts, and to command deliverance, that he
may plead his own cause, or rather Christ's, and the state's.
As also to afford such cost and damages as he has suffered in
body, estate, and family^ having been prisoner (and that
many times) in the most nasty prisons, eleven years, not suffer-
ed to breathe in the open air : to which, give him leave to
add his great sufferings in all those particulars, some sixteen
years ago, for publishing a book, called, ' The Looking-
Glassof Holy War.'
" Farther, as the cause is Christ's and the states, so your
petitioner conceiveth (under correction) that the subject of the
book will be the prime and main matter of your agitation, to
whose wisdom he hopeth the book shall approve itself.
" Also your petitioner's wearing age, going now in
seventy-two years, together with the sicknesses and weak-
ness of his long distressed wife, require a speedy deliverance.
(i Lastly, the sons of death, the Jesuits and jesuited, have
so long insulted in their own licentious liberty, and over the
miseries of your servant, and others ; who, forbearing more
motives, craves pardon for his prolixity, being necessitated
thereto from the depth and length of his miseries. In all
which he ceaseth not to pray, &c. and,
" Kisseth your hands."
Pro v. xxiv. 11.
" Wilt thou not deliver them that are drawn unto cleat V
and those that are ready to be slain ?"
2x
338 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
When this merciless sentence on Leigh ton was pronounc-
ing, Laud stood up in public court, and " pulled off his cap,
and gave God thanks for it ;" and in his diary he makes this
remark on the execution, without one word to discover that
his bowels yearned, or his heart relented. " Friday, Nov.
16. He (Leighton) was severely whipped ; and being set in
the pillory, he had one of his ears cut off, one side of his nose
slit, and branded on one cheek with a red-hot iron. And on
that day sevennight his sores upon his back, ear, nose and
face, not being cured, he was whipped again at the pillory in
Cheapside, and there had the remainder of his sentence
executed upon him, by cutting off the other ear, slitting the
other side of his nose, and branding the other cheek.
These, and the like instances are specimens of this most
reverend prelate's humanity, compassion, and christian mode-
ration. I shall only consider him in one view more, viz. his
constant regard to the laws and liberties of his country.
He justified, and did all he could to support Charles I. in
all the illegal and arbitrary measures of lib government. In
1626, after he had dissolved his Parliament, because they
were too intent upon the redress of grievances, though they
had voted four subsidies, and three fifteenths, he resolved to
raise money by the illegal method of a loan. And to promote
this, who so fit as Laud ; who, with others of his brethren,
were, as the complete historian expresses it, unhappily
t{ engaged in the interest of Buckingham, and very forward
in those measures which the king unfortunately took." Ac-
cordingly Laud received a command from the king to draw
up instructions to shew the urgency of the king's affairs, and
his occasions of supply. These instructions Laud soon got
ready ; and the king sent them as letters of precept to the two
archbishops, to be communicated to their suffragans, to be
published in all the parishes of the kingdom. This was justly
looked upon as a stratagem of state to promote the raising of
money without a parliament, and Laud was employed as the
fittest tool to promote these arbitrary measures of the king.
The papists joined with the bishops, and were very forward
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 339
in the loan : whilst the puritans were backward in it ; and
some of the best gentlemen in the kingdom, upon their refusal
to lend money, were immediately committed to several jails.
Besides this, the court had their parsons to preach up
absolute obedience to the king's commands. Sibthorp, in his
sermpn at Northampton, laid it down as gospel, that u It is
the king's duty to direct and make laws; that he doth what-
ever pleaseth him ; and that it is the subject's duty to yield a
passive obedience." Manwaring, in a sermon, spoke more
plainly, and affirmed, that " the king was not bound to ob-
serve the laws of the realm concerning the subject's rights and
liberties ; but that his royal will and command, in imposing
loans and taxes, without common consent of Parliament, doth
oblige the subject's conscience, upon pain of eternal damna-
tion ; and that those who refused the loan, became guilty of
impiety, disloyalty, and rebellion. And yet infamous as this
doctrine was, and subversive of all the laws of the kingdom,
Laud was their patron and advocate; and in contempt of the
censure of the House of Lords on Manwaring, gave him first
as his reward a good benefice, and afterwards advanced him
to the Bishoprick of St. David. And because this parliament,
which had censured Manwaring, had also complained of
Laud himself, and passed a vote against innovations in reli-
gion, and against such as should counsel and advise the levy-
ing of tonnage and poundage without grant of parliament;
Laud, out of his great love for the liberties of the kingdom,
advised the king to dissolve it ; which he accordingly did, to
the great discontent of the nation in general.
Another illegal project for raising money, was by a tax to
provide and maintain a certain number of ships to guard the
seas ; and writs were sent all over the kingdom. An. 1636, for
this purpose. Laud was peculiarly active in this affair ; and
as several persons refused to pay the sums they were rated at,
they were summoned before the council table., where they
were brow-beaten, and sentenced to jail by Laud, and others
of the council.1 Laud acknowledges he gave his vote with
"to — ~~ to'
(1) Wharton, vol. II. p,
2x2
340
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
the rest, and he had an hand in these and almost all other ille-
gal pressures for ship-money ; and in his diary he tells us,
that " Dec. 5, 1639. A resolution was voted at the council
board," when he was present, " to assist the king in extraor-
dinary ways, if the parliament should prove peevish, and
refuse, &c."
1 The endeavouring arbitrarily to reduce the kirk of Scot-
land to the discipline of the church of England, was also by
Laud's persuasion and advice ; who was ordered by the
king to hold continual correspondence with the bishops and
council of Scotland, and to take with them the necessary
measures to accomplish the design. 2 The Scots bishops were
so lifted up, says Burnet, with the king's zeal, and so encou-
raged by Archbishop Laud, that they lost all temper. And
when the violent measures that were used to impose the liturgy,
&c. drove the Scots to an open rupture, he forwardly pro-
cured an order of council, directed to the two archbishops, to
write their several letters to the bishops, that they might incite
their clergy to assist the king to reduce the Scots. Laud ac-
cordingly wrote to his several suffragans, and raised by the
clergy a very great sum on this occasion. The queen also
wrote letters to promote contributions amongst the Roman
catholics, to further the same good cause. So that Laud and
his clergy, the queen and her papists, joined hand in hand to
destroy or enslave the protestants of Scotland ; who rose in
their own defence, and to preserve themselves from the arbi-
trary measures of this tyrannical archpriest.
But it would be endless to reckon up all the instances of
his illegal proceedings. He was a confederate with all the
enemies of the liberties of these kingdoms, and pushed on the
unhappy king to such fatal measures, as at last produced
the civil wars and the subversion of the constitution. He was
chief counsellor and minister after Buckingham's death ; so
that as Sir Edward Deering said of hjm, to the parliament.
(I) Rapin, toI. II. p, 300. (2) Vol. I. p. 26.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 341
" Our manifold griefs do fill a mighty and vast circumference,
yet so that from every part our lines of sorrow do lead unto
him, and point at him the centre, from whence our miseries in
this church, and many of them in the commonwealth, do flow.,'*
Sir Harbottle Grimstone was more severe, who called him,
" The sty of all pestilential filth — The great and common
enemy of all goodness, and good men — A viper near his ma-
jesty's person, to distill poison into his sacred ears."
These and the like violences of Laud and his creatures,
drew down the just vengeance of the parliament on his head,
and involved the church of England itself in his ruin. Bishops
and common prayer were now no more. The church was
formed after a quite different model, and the presbytejian dis-
cipline received and established, both the lords and commons
taking the solemn league and covenant, which was intended
for the utter abolishing prelatical government. The writers
of the church party think this an everlasting brand of infamy
upon the presbyterians. But how doth this throw greater infamy
upon them, than the subversion of presbytery in Scotland,
and the imposing canons and common prayer on that nation,
doth on Laud and his creatures ? - If the alteration of the esta-
blished religion, in any nation, be a crime in itself, it is so in
every nation ; and I doubt not but the Scotch presbyterians,
think that that archbishop, and the prelatical party, acted as
unjustly, illegally, and tyrannically, in introducing the bngiish
form of church government and worship into Scotland, con-
tary to their former settlement, and the inclination of almost
the whole nation, as the high-church party can do with re-
spect to the presbyterians, for altering the form of the. establish-
ment in England ; And, indeed, the same arguments that will
vindicate the alterations made in Scotland by the king and the
bishops, will vindicate those made in England by the parlia-
ment and the presbyterians.
1 It would have been highly honourable to the presbyterian
party, had they used their power, when in possession of it,
(1) Presbyterians.
342 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
with moderation, and avoided all those methods of persecutions
and suspensions they had themselves felt the effects of in for-
mer times. But to do them justice, they had no great inclina-
tion for moderate measures, or allowing any form of religion but
their own ; as appears from the larger catechism of the West-
minster divines, approved by the general assembly of the kirk
of Scotland; in which the " tolerating a false religion" is
ranked amongst the sins forbidden in the second command-
ment. And accordingly as soon as they came into the church,
all others must out wlio would not comply, and submit to
sequestrations and imprisonments.
" The solemn league and covenant'* was imposed, and
rigorously exacted of all people, as they would escape their
brand and penalty of malignants. Many of the episcopal
clergy, botli in the city and country, were expelled their
livings ; though by a generosity, not afterwards imitated by
them, provision was made for the support of their wives and
children. The lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council-
men of Londou, presented a remonstrance to the parliament,
desiring a strict course for suppressing all private and separate
congregations ; that all anabaptists, heretics, &c. as conformed
not to the public discipline, may be declared and proceeded
against; that all be required to obey the government settled, or
to be settled; and that none disaffected to the presbyterian
government, be employed in any place of public trust.
An ordinance of parliament was also made ; by which every
minister that should use the common prayer, in church or
family, was to forfeit five pounds for the first time, ten pounds
for the second, and to suffer a year's imprisonment for the
third. Also every minister, for every neglect of the directory,
was to pay forty shillings ; and for every contempt of it, by
writing or preachings to forfeit, at the discretion of those be-
fore whom he was convicted, any sum not under five pounds,
nor above fifty pounds. The parliament also appointed elder-
ships to suspend, at their discretion, such whom they should
judge to be scandalous, from the sacrament, with a liberty of
appeal to the classical eldership, #c. They set up, also, arbi-
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 343
trary rules about the examination and ordination of ministers
by Triers, who were to be sound in faith, and such as usually
received the sacrament. And in these things they were quick-
ened by the Scots, who complained that reformation moved
so slowly, and that sects and errors encreased, and endeavours
were used for their toleration. Great restraints also were put
upon the liberty of the press, by several ordinances made for
that purpose. And, to say the truth, when they once got pres-
bytery established, they used the same methods of suspensions,
sequestrations and fines, that the prelatical party had done be-
fore, though not with equal severity ; and were as zealous for
uniformity in their own covenant and discipline, as the bishops
were for hierarchy, liturgy, and ceremonies.
1 But the triumphs of the presbytery and covenant were but
short. Upon the restoration of the " royal wanderer, Charles
II. prelacy immediately revived, and exerted itself in its pri-
mitive vigor and severity. In his majesty's first declaration
to his loving subjects, he was pleased to promise " a liberty to
tender consciences, and that no man should be disquieted or
called in question for differences of opinion in matters of reli-
gion ; and that he would consent to an act of parliament for
the full granting that indulgence." But other measures
soon prevailed. In the second year after his restoration,
the act of uniformity was passed ; by which all ministers
were to read, and " publicly declare unfeigned assent and
consent to all and every thing contained in, and prescribed
by the book of common prayer," before the feast of St. Bar-
tholomew then ensuing, under the penalty of immediate and
absolute deprivation. The consequence of this act was, that
between two and three thousand excellent divines were turned
out of their churches; many of them, to say the least, as emi-
nent for learning and piety as Hie bishops, who were the great
promoters of this barbarous act ; and themselves and families,
many of them, exposed to the greatest distress and poverty.
0) Charles IT.
344 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
This cruel injustice obliged the ejected ministers, and theif
friends, to set up separate congregations ; and occasioned such
a division from the established church, as will, I hope, ever
remain, to witness against the tyranny of those times, and the
reverend authors and promoters of that act, to maintain the
spirit and practice of serious religion, and as a public protes-
tation for the civil and religious liberties of mankind, till time
shall be no more ; or till the church shall do herself the justice
and honour to open wide her gates, for the reception of all into
her communion and ministry, who are not rendered incapable
of either, by Jesus Christ the great shepherd and bishop of
souls. But however, measures were then soon taken to disturb
their meetings. In 1664, the bill against frequenting conven-
ticles passed, the first offence made punishable with five
pounds, or three months imprisonment; the second offence
with ten pounds, or six months imprisonment; and the third
with banishment to some of the foreign- plantations ; sham plots
being- fathered on the dissenters, to prepare the way for these
severities.
But some of the bishops, such as Sheldon, Ward, Wrenn,
&c. did not think these hardships enough ; and therefore, not-
withstanding the devastations of the plague, and though se-
veral of the ejected ministers shewed their piety and courage,
in staying and preaching in the city during the fury of it, the
five mile act was passed against them the next year at Oxford ;
by which all the silenced ministers were obliged to take an
oath, that it was not lawful, on any pretence whatsoever, to
take arms against the king, or any commissioned by him ; and
that they would not, at any time, endeavour an alteration in
the government of church and state. Sucli who scrupled the
oath were forbid to come within five miles of any city or par-
liament borough, or of the church where they had been minis-
ters, under penalty of forty pounds, or six months imprison-
ment, for every offence.
After these things, several attempts were set on foot for a
comprehension, but rendered ineffectual by the practices of
the bishops ; and particularly by Ward, bishop of Salisbury,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 345
>vho had himself taken the solemn league and covenant : But
having forsaken his first principles, it is no wonder he became
a bitter persecutor, In the year 1670, another severe act was
passed against them : by whicli it#was provided, that if any
person,/ upwards of sixteen, should be present at any conven-
ticle, under colour of exercising religion in any other manner
than according to the practice of the church of England, where
there were five persons or more, besides those of the said
household, the offenders were to pay five shillings for the first
offence, and ten shillings for the second : and the preacher to
forfeit twenty pounds for the first, and forty pounds for the
second offence, and those who knowingly suffered any such
conventicles in their houses, barns, yards, &c, were to forfeit
twenty pounds. The effect of these acts was, that great nuni-
bers of ministers and their people were laid in jails amongst
thieves and common malefactors, where they suffered the
greatest hardships and indignities ; their effects were seized on,
and themselves and families reduced to almost beggary and
famine.
But at length this very parliament, which had passed these
severe bills against protestant dissenters, began themselves to
be awakened, and justly grew jealous of their religion and
liberties, from the increase of popery : and therefore, to pre-
vent all dangers which might happen from popish recusants,
they passed, in 1673, the test act ; which hath since been?
contrary to the original design of the law, turned against the
protestant dissenters, and made use of to exclude them from
the enjoyment of those rights and privileges which they have
a natural claim to. In the year 1680, a bill passed both
houses of parliament, for exempting his majesty's protestant
dissenting subjects from certain penalties ; but when the king
came to the house to pass the bills, this bill was taken from
the table, and never heard of more ; And though this parlia-
ment voted, that the- prosecution of protestant dissenters, upon
the penal laws, was grievous to the subject, a weakening the
protestant interest, an encouragement to popery, and danger-
ous to the peace of the kingdom ; jet they underwent a fresh
2r
346' TtfE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
prosecution, their meetings were broken up, many ministers
imprisoned, and most cxhorbitant fines levied on them and
their hearers.
In the beginning of King James's (II.) reign, these rigor-
ous proceedings were continued, but as the design of that
unhappy bigotted prince was to subvert the religion and laws
of these kingdoms, he published in the year 1687, a declara-
tion for a general liberty of conscience to all persons, of what
persuasion soever ; not out of any regard or affection to the
protestant dissenters, but for the promoting the popish religion
and interest. He also caused an order of council to be passed,
that his declaration of indulgence should be read, in all
•hurches and chapels, in the time of divine service, all over
England and Wales. But though the dissenters used the
liberty which was thus granted them, and had several oppor-
tunities to have been revenged on their former persecutors;
yei they had too much honour, and regard to the protestant
religion and liberties, ever to fall in with the measures of the
court, or lend their assistance to introduce arbitrary power and
popery. And as the divines of the church of England, whea
they saw King James's furious measures to subvert the whole
constitution, threw off their stiff and haughty carriage towards
the dissenters, owned them for brethren, put on the appearance
of the spirit of peace and charity, and assured them that no
such rigorous methods should be used towards them for the
future ; things that never entered into their hearts whilst they
were triumphant in power, and which nothing but a sense of
their own extreme* danger seems then to have extorted from
them ; the dissenters, far from following their resentments,
readily entered into all measures with them for the common
safety, and were amongst the first and heartiest friends of the
revolution, under King William III. of glorious and immortal
memory.
Soon after the settlement of this prince' upon the throne, an
act was passed for exempting their majesty's protestant sub-
jects, dissenting from the church of England, from the penal
Jaws; and though the king, in a speech to the two houses of
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 347
parliament, told them, " That he lioped they would leave
room for the admission of all protestants that were willing and
able to serve him ;" agreeable to which, a clause was
ordered to be brought into the house of lords, to take away
the necessity of receiving the sacrament to make persons capa-
ble of offices ; jet his majesty's gracious intentions were frus-
trated, and the clause rejected by a great majority. Another
clause also that was afterwards added, that the receiving the
sacrament in the church of England, or in any other protestant
congregation, should be a sufficient qualification, met with the
same, fate as the former: so that though the dissenters were
freed from the penal laws, they were left under a brand of,
infamy, and rendered incapable of serving their king and
country. And the Lord's Supper laid open to be prostituted
by law to the most abandoned and profligate sinners ; and an
institution designed for the union of all christians, made the
test of a party, and the means of their separation from each
other ; a scandal that remains upon the church of England to
this day. It is indeed but too plain, that when the established
church saw itself out of danger, she forgot her promises of
moderation and condescension towards the dissenters, who
readily and openly declared their willingness to yield to a
coalition. But as the clergy had formed a resolution of con-
senting to no alterations, in order to such an union ; all the
attempts made to this purpose became wholly ineffectual.
Indeed, their very exemption from the penal laws was envied
them by many ; and several attempts were made to disturb
and prosecute them in this reign, but were prevented frorg
taking effect by royal injunctions.
Upon the death of King William, and the succession of
Queen Anne, the hatred of the clergy towards the dissenters*,
that had lurked in their breasts, during the former reign, im-
mediately broke out. Sever aj sermons were preached to ren-
der them odious, and expose them to the fury of the mob. A
bill was brought in and passed by the house of commons, for
preventing occasional conformity, imposing an hundred
pounds penalty upon every person resorting to a conventicle
2y 2
348 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
or meeting, after bis admission into offices, and five pounds
for every day's continuance in such offices, after having been
present at such conventicle t but upon some disagreement
between the Lords and Commons, the bill dropped for that
time. The same bill, with some few alterations, passed the
house of commons the two next sessions, but was rejected by
the lords. During this reign several pamphlets were publish-
ed, containing bitter invectives against the dissenters, and
exciting the government to extirpate and destroy them. Seve-
ral prosecutions were also carried on against them for teaching
schools, &c. with great eagerness and malice. In 1709, an
open rebellion broke out, when the mob pulled down the meet-
ing-houses, and publicly burnt the pews and pulpits. Sache-
verell was trumpet to the rebellion, by preaching treason and
persecution ; and the parliament that censured him, was
hastily dissolved. The parliament that succeeded, 1711, was
of a true tory spirit and complexion; and, in its second ses-
fcion, passed the bill against occasional conformity. The next
parliament, which met in 1714, was of the same disposition,
and passed a bill to prevent the growth of schism ; by which
the dissenters were restrained from teaching schools, or from
being tutors to instruct pupils in any family, without the
license of the archbishop or bishop of the diocese where they
resided ; and the justices of the peace had power given them
finally to determine in all cases relating thereto. Another bill
was also intended to be brought in against them, to incapacitate
them from voting in elections for parliament men, or being
chosen members of parliament themselves.
But before these unjust proceedings had their intended
effect, the protestant succession, in his late majesty king George
I. took place ; Queen Anne dying on the first of August, the
very day on which the schism bill was to have commenced ;
which, together with that to prevent occasional conformity,
were both repealed by the first parliament called together by
that excellent prince. And I cannot help tliinking that if the
church of England had then consented to have set the dis-
senters intirely free, by repealing the test and corporation acts •
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 349
it would have been much to its own honour and reputation, as
well as a great strength and security to the national interest.
B\it the time was not then come. We still labour under the
oppression of those two acts ; and notwithstanding our zeal for
his majesty's person and family, must sit down as easy as we
can, with the inclination to serve him, whilst by law we are
denied the opportunity and power.
The sentiments of his late majesty, of glorious memory,
with respect to moderation, and the tolerating of dsssenters,
were so fully understood by the whole nation, as kept the
clergy in tolerable good order, and from breaking out into
many outrages against them. But a controversy that began
amongst themselves, soon discovered what spirit many of them
were of. The then bishop of Bangor, the now* worthy and
reverend bishop of Winchester, happened in a sermon before
his majesty, to assert the supreme authority of Christ as king
in his own kingdom ; and that he had not delegated his power,
like temporal lawgivers, during their absence from their king-
doms, to any persons, as his deputies and vicegerents. Anno
1717. He also published his preservative; in which he ad-
vanced some positions contrary to temporal and spiritual tyran-
ny, and in behalf of the civil and religious liberties of mankind.
The goodness of his lordship's intentions to serve the family of
his present majesty, the interest of his country, and the honour
of the church of God, might methinks have screened him from
all scurrilous abuses. But how numerous were his adversa-
ries, and how hard the weapons with which they attacked him !
Not only the dregs of the people and clergy opened against
him ; but mighty men, and men of great renown, from whom
better things might have been expected, entered the lists with
him, and became the avowed champions for spiritual power,
and the division of the kingdom between Christ Jesus and
themselves. His lordship of Bangor had this manifest advan-
tage upon the face of the argument. He pleaded for Christ's
* In 1738.
550 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION*
being king in his own kingdom : bis adversaries pleaded for
the translation of his kingdom to certain spiritual viceroys.
He for liberty of private judgment, in matters of religion and
conscience : they for dominion over the faith and consciences
of others. He against all the methods of persecution': they
for penal laws ; for corporation and test acts, and the power-
ful motives of positive and negative discouragements. He'
with the spirit of meekness and of a friend to truth : they with
bitterness and rancour, and an evident regard to interest and
party.
However, the lower house of convocation accused and pro-
secuted him, for attempting the subversion of all government
and discipline in the church of Christ, with a view undoubted-
ly of bringing him under a spiritual censure, and with im-
peaching the regal supremacy in causes ecclesiastical, to sub-
ject him to the weight of a civil one. Of the bishop, it must
be said, to his everlasting honour, that the temper he discover-
ed, under the opposition he met with, and the slanders that
were thrown on him, was as much more amiable than that of
his adversaries, as his cause was better, his writings and prin-
ciples more consistent, and his arguments more conclusive and
convincing. But notwithstanding these advantages, his lord-
ship had great reason to be thankful to God that the civil
power supported and protected him ; otherwise his enemies
would not, in all probability, heave been content with throwing
scandal upon his character, but forced him to have parted with
something, and then delivered him unto Satan for the
punishment of his flesh, and made him have felt the weight of
that authority, which God made him the happy and honour-
able instrument of opposing ; especially if they were all of
them of a certain good archdeacon's mind, who thought he
deserved to have his tougue cut out.
The dissenters also have had their quarrels and controver-
sies amongst themselves, and managed them with great warmth
and eagerness of temper. During their persecution under
King Charles II. and the common danger of the nation under
his brother James, they kept tolerably quiet ; the designs of
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 351
the common enemy to ruin them all, uniting them the more
firmly amongst themselves. But after the revolution, when
they were secure from oppression by the civil power, they
soon fell into eager disputes about justification, and other
points of like nature. The high-flown orthodox party would
scarce own for their brethren those who were for moderation
in these principles, or who differed in the least from their
doctrine concerning them. * And when they could no longer
produce reason and scripture in their defence, they, some of
them, made use of infamous methods of scandal, and endea-
voured to blast the character of a reverend and worthy divine,
Dr. Williams, in the most desperate manner ; because they
could no otherwise answer and refute his arguments. But his
virtue stood the shock of all their attempts to defame it ; for
after about eight weeks spent in an enquiry into his life, by a
committee of the united ministers, which received all manner
of complaints and accusations against him ; it was declared at
a general meeting, as their unanimous opinion, and repeated
and agreed to in three several meetings successively, that he
was intirely clear and innocent of all that was laid to his charge.
Thus was he vindicated in the amplest form, after the
strictest examination that could be made ; and his adversaries^
who dealt in defamation and scandal, if not brought to repen-
tance, were yet put to silence. It was almost incredible how
much he was a fufferer for his opposition to Antinomianism,
by a strong party, who left nothing unattempted to crush him,
if it had been possible. But as his innocence appeared the
brighter, after his character had been thoroughly sifted^ he
was, under God, greatly instrumental in putting a stop to
those pernicious opinions which his oppo^ers propagated;
which struck at the very essentials of all natural and revealed
religion. His Gospel Truth remains a monument of his honour;
a monument his enemies were never able to destroy. How-
ever, nothing would serve, but his exclusion from the mer-
(I) Nelson's Life of Bp. Bull, p. 275, 27fo
352 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION*
chant's Lecture at Pinners-Hall. Three other worthy divines*
who had bsen his partners in that service, bore him company \
and their places were supplied with four others, of unquestion-
able rigidness and sterling orthodoxy. Many papers were
drawn up on each side, in order to an accommodation ; so
that it looked as Dr. Calamy tells us, as if the creed-making age
was again revived. It was insisted, that Arminianism should
be renounced on one side, and Antinomianism on the other.
But all was in vain ; and the papers that were drawn up to
compose matters, created new heats, instead of extinguishing
the old ones. These contentions were kept up for several
years, till at last the disputants grcvy weary, and the contro-
versy thread -bare, when it dropped of itself.
The next thing that divided them was the Trinitarian contro-
versy, and the affair of subscription to human creeds and arti-
cles of faith, as a test of orthodoxy. In the year 1695, a
great contest arose about the trinity, amongst the divines of
the church of England, who charged each other with Trithe-
ism and Sabellianism ; and according to the ecclesiastical man-
ner of managing disputes, bestowed invectives and scurrilous
language very plentifully upon each other. The dissenters,
in the reign of his late majesty, not only unfortunately fell into
the same debate, but carried it on, some of them at least, with
equal want of prudence and temper.
In the west of England, where the fire first broke out, mo-
deration, christian forbearance, and charity, seemed to have
been wholly extinguished. The reverend and learned Mr.
James Peirce, minister in the city of Exeter, was dismissed
from his congregation, upon a charge of- heresy ; and treated
by his opposers, with shameful rudeness and insolence. Other
congregations were also practised with, to discard their pastors
upon the same suspicion, who were accused of impiously u de-
nying the Lord that bought them;" to render them odious to
their congregations, merely because they could not come up
to the unscriptural tests of human orthodoxy. And when
several of the ministers of London thought proper to interpose,
and try, if by advices for peace, they could not compose the
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION* 353
differences of their brethren in the west ; this christian design
was as furiously opposed as if it had been a combination to ex-
tirpate Christianity itself; and a proposal made in the room of
it, that the article of the church of England, and the answer
in the assembly's catechism, relating to the trinity, should be
subscribed by all the ministers, as a declaration of their faith,
and a test of their orthodoxy.
This proposal was considered by many of the ministers,
not only as a thing unreasonable in itself, thus to make inqui-
sition into the faith of others, but highly inconsistent with the
character of protestants, dissenting from the national establish-
ment ; and dissenting from it for this reason amongst others,
because the established church expressly claims u an authority
in controversies of faith." And, therefore, after the affair had
been debated for a considerable while, the question was so-
lemnly put, and the proposal rejected by a majority of voices.
This the zealots were highly displeased with, and accordingly
publicly proclaimed their resentments from the pulpits. Fasts
were appointed solemnly to deplore, confess, and pray against
the aboundings of heresy ; and their sermons directly levelled
against the two great evils of the church, Nonsubscription and
Arianism. Through the goodness of God they had no power
to proceed farther ; and when praying and preaching in this
manner began to grow tedious, and were, by experience, found
to prove ineffectual, to put a stop to the progress of the cause of
liberty, their zeal immediately abated, the cry of heresy was
seldomer heard, and the alarm of the church's being endan-
gered by pernicious errors, gradually ceased ; it being very
observable, that though heresy be ever in its nature the same
thing, yet that the cry against it is either more or less, accord-
ing as the political managers of it, can find more or fewer
passions to work on, or a greater or lesser interest to subserve
by it.
£z
554 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
SECT. VI.
. Of Persecutions in New England.
It hath been already remarked, in the foregoing section?,
that the rigours with which Laud, and his persecuting brethren
treated the puritans, occasioned many of them to transport
themselves to New England, for the sake of* enjoying that
liberty of conscience, which they were cruelly denied in their
native country. And who could have imagined, but that their
own sufferings for conscience sake must have excited in them
an utter abhorrence of these antichristian principles, by which
they themselves had so deeply smarted? But though they
carried over with them incurable prejudices against persecuting
prelates, yet they seem many of them to have thought that
they had the right of persecution in themselves ; and accord-
ingly practised many grievous cruelties towards those who
did not fall in with their doctrine and discipline, and church
order.
I shall not here mention the severities practised on great
numbers of persons for supposed witchcraft, to the great blem-
ish and dishonour of the government there, those prosecutions
being carried on not properly upon a religious account ; but I
am obliged, injustice, not to pass by the cruel laws they made
against the persons called Quakers, who felt the weight of
their " independent discipline," and were treated with the
utmost rigour by their magistrates and ministers.
1 In the year 1656, a law was made at Boston, prohibiting
all masters of ships to bring any quakers into that jurisdiction,
and themselves from coming in, " on penalty of the house of
correction. When this law was published, one Nicholas Up-
shal, who was himself an independent, argued against the un-
reasonableness of such a law; and warned them to take heed
u not to fight against God," and so draw down a judgment
upon the land. For this they fined him twenty-three pounds,
(1) Sewel's Hist. p. 161. \
THE HISTORY 'OF PERSECUTION. 355
imprisoned him for not coming to church, and banished him
out of their jurisdiction.
1 But though this law was executed upon many persons
with unrelenting and extreme rigour; yet, as it did not entirely
prevent the quakers from coming into New England, a more
cruel law was made against them in the year 1658. /" That
whosoever of the inhabitants should, directly or indirectly,
cause any of the quakers to come into that jurisdiction, he
6 should forfeit one hundred pounds to the country, and be
committed to prison,' there to remain till the penalty, should be.
satisfied : fend whosoever should entertain them, knowing them
lobe so, c should forfeit forty shillings to the country for every
hour's entertainment' or concealment, and be committed to
prison till the forfeiture should be fully paid and satisfied.
And farther, that all and every of those people, that should
arise amongst them there, should be dealt withal, and suffer
the like punishment as the laws provided for those that came
in : viz. That for the first offence, if a male, 4 one of his ears
should be cut off, and he kept at work in the house of correc-
tion,' till he should be sent away at his own charge. For the
second, 6 the other ear, and be kept in the house of correction,'
as aforesaid. If a woman, then 6 to be severely whipped,'
and kept as aforesaid, as the male for the first; and for the
second offence, to be dealt withal as the first. And for the
third, ' he or she should have their tongues bored through
with an hot iron,' and be kept in the house of correction close
at work, till they be scat away at their own charge."
Could it be imagined that the authors of these bloody laws
had been forced from their own native country by the terrors
o( persecution ? or that after all their complaints, about the.
violences and oppressions of the prelates against themselves,
they should yet think persecution for conscience-sake a lawful
thing ; and that they had a right, as soon as ever they could
get power, to persecute others? The making such laws, and
(I) Id. p. 194.
2z2
356
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
the execution of them, was certainly more detestable in them
than others ; who should have learnt forbearance and com-
passion towards others, by the things which they themselves
had suffered. And yet they seem to have been as devoid of
these virtues, as Laud or any of his brethren, against whom
they had so bitterly and justly exclaimed.
1 In pursuance of the before-mentioned law, one William
Brend, and William Leddra, were committed to the house of
correction at Boston ; where they were kept five days without
food, and after that received twenty blows each with a three -
corded whip. The next day Brend, who was an elderly man,
was put in irons, and tied neck and heels close together for
sixteen hours. The next morning the jailer took a pitched
rope, about an inch thick, and gave him twenty blows over
the back and arms with as much force as he could, so that the
rope untwisted. But he fetched another thicker and stronger,
and gave him fourscore and seventeen more blows, and threat-
ened to give him as many more the next morning. Brend
had nothing on but a serge cassock upon his shirt, so that his
back and arms were grievously bruised, and the blood hung
as in bags under his arms; and so cruelly was his body
mangled, that it was reduced almost to a perfect jelly.
The same year J. Copeland, Christ. Helder, and J. Rous,
were apprehended and imprisoned, and condemned to have
each of them their right ear cut off by the hangman ; which
was accordingly executed ; after which they were whipped.
But things did not stop here. Norton and others of his
brethren the ministers, petitioned the magistrates to cause the
court to make some law to banish the quakers, upon pain of
death. The court consisted of twenty-five persons ; and the
law being proposed, it was carried in the affirmative, thirteen
to twelve. As the law is very peculiar, and contains the rea-
sons given by these " Independent Persecutors," and shews
the severity of their discipline, I shall give the substance of it ;
which is as follows :
(l)Id. p. 195.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 357
1 " Whereas there is a pernicious sect, commonly called
quakers, lately risen, wlioby word and writing have published
and maintained many dangerous and horrid tenets, and do
take on them to change and alter the received laudable cus-
toms of our nation, in giving civil respect to equals, or reve-
rence to superiors, whose actions tend to undermine the civil
government, and also to destroy the order of the churches, by
denying all established fon\ns of worship, and by withdrawing
from orderly church fellowship, allowed and approved by all
orthodox professors of the truth — whereby divers of our inha-
bitants have been infected ;~— for prevention thereof, this court
cloth order and enact, that every person or persons of " the
cursed sect" of the ' Quakers,' who is not an inhabitant of,
but is found within this jurisdiction, shall be apprehended
without warrant, where no magistrate is at hand, by any con-
stable, commissioner, or selectman — who shall, commit the said
person to close prison, there to remain without bail until the
next court of assistance, where they shall have a legal trial :
and 6 being convicted to be of the sect of the quakers, shall
be sentenced to be banished, upon pain of death.' And that
every inhabitant of this jurisdiction, being convicted to be of
the aforesaid sect, either by taking up, publishing, or defend-
ing the horrid opinions of the quakers, or the stirring up muti-
ny, sedition, and rebellion against the government, or by tak-
ing up their absurd and destructive practices, viz. denying civil
respect to equals and superiors, and withdrawing from our
church assemblies, and instead thereof frequent meetings of
their own, in opposition to our church order, or by adhering to,
or approving of any known quaker, and the tenets and prac-
tices of the quakers, that are opposite to u the orthodox received
opinions of the godly, and endeavouring to disaffect others to
civil government, and church orders, or condemning the practice
and proceedings of this court against the quakers, manifesting
hereby their complying with those, whose design is to over-
(l)Id.I».l99.
358 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
throw the order established in church and state ; every such
person, upon conviction before the said court of assistants, in
manner as aforesaid, ' shall be committed to close prison for
one month;' and then, unless they choose voluntarily to de-
part this jurisdiction, shall give bond for their good behaviour,
and appear at the next court ; where continuing obstinate, and
c refusing to retract or reform the aforesaid opinions,' they
shall 6 be sentenced to banishment, upon pain of death :/| And
any one magistrate, upon information given him of any such
person, shall cause him to be apprehended ; and shall commit
any such person to prison, according to bis discretion, until
he come to trial, as aforesaid." /
ft* u Here endeth," says my -author, "-this sanguinary act,
being more like to the decrees of the Spanish inquisition, than
the laws of a reformed christian magistracy ; consisting of such
who themselves, to slum persecution (which was but a small
fine for not frequenting the public worship) had left Old En-
gland." And what was it occasioned this bloody law ? Why,
because the poorquakers refused to pull off their hats, and with-
drew from the church assemblies of these independent perse-
cutors, and frequented their own meetings, in opposition to
their church order; and because the quakers held tenets oppo-
site to the orthodox received opinions of the godly, i. e. oppo-
site to their own opinions, who by #ying from England seem
to have imagined that they carried away with them all the
orthodoxy and godliness out of the kingdom. ,
And to shew therigidness of their discipline, and that they
did not intend tills law merely u in terrorem," they wickedly
murdered several innocent persons under., the cover of it, seve-
ral of their priests standing with pleasure to see them executed.
Thus William Robinson, merchant, Marmaduke Stephenson,
Mary Dyer, and William Leddra, were hanged at Boston for
being quakers; and they would have proceeded to more exe-
cutions, had it not been for the Mandamus of Charles II. who,
though a papist, yet was of a more merciful disposition than
these New England disciplinarians, and ordered all proceed-
ings against the quakers immediately to stop.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 359.
It would be endless to recount all the cruelties they used to
these poor people, whom they imprisoned, unmercifully whip-
ped, oppressed with fines, and then condemned them to be sold
to the plantations, to answer the fines they had laid upon them.
But enough hath been said to shew the inhumanity of their
spirit and practice, and to raise in the reader an abhorrence
and detestation of such a conduct in men, who, though they
had been persecuted themselves, carried the principles of per-
secution with them into the place of their banishment, and
used worse severities towards others for conscience-sake, than
what they themselves had experienced from the bitterness of
their enemies ; and thereby made it appear, that they com-
plained against the persecutions of the prelatical party, not
because they were for moderation and christian charity in
their own conduct, but because they thought the right of per-
secution only in themselves, and that violence ought not to b«
made use of to support any but the orthodox opinions of such
as they themselves esteemed to be godly, and to maintain what
they called the order and fellowship of their own churches.
*I have only to add, that I find also from the same author,
that the quakers were much persecuted in Scotland ; but as he
hath given no particular account of that affair, I have nothing
farther to enlarge upon that subject.
And thus have I brought the History of Persecution down
to our own times, and nation • and shewn how all parties have,
in their turns of power, been sharers in this guilt. If church
history would have afforded me abetter account, I assure my
reader he should have had it told with pleasure. The story,
as it is, 1 have told with grief. But it is time to dismiss him
from so ungrateful an entertainment, and see what useful re-
flections we can make on the whole.
(1) p. 56?
360 THE HISTORY OP PERSECUTION,
CONCLUSION.
SECT. I.
The Clergy the great promoters of persecution.
It is a truth too evident to be denied, that the clergy -in
general, throughout almost all the several ages of the christian
church ; have been deep and warm in the measures of perse-
cution; as though it had been a doctrine expressly inculcated
in the sacred writings, and recommended by the practice of
our Saviour and Ins apostles. Indeed, could such a charge as
this have been justly fixed on the great author of our religion,
or the messengers he sent into the world to propagate it ; I
think it would have been such an evidence of its having been
dictated by weak or wicked, or worldly-minded men, as no-
thing could possibly have disproved.
But that Christianity might be free from every imputation
of this kind, God was pleased to send his son into the world,
without any of the advantages of worldly riches and grandeur,
and absolutely to disclaim all the prerogatives of an earthly
kingdom. His distinguishing character was that of " meek
and lowly;" and the methods by which he conquered and
triumphed over his enemies, and drew all men to him, was
" patience and constancy, even to the death." And when he
sent out his own apostles, he sent them out but poorly furnish-
ed, to all human appearance, for their journey;1 "without
staves, or scrip, or bread, or money," to let them know that
he had but little of this world to give them ; and that their
whole dependence was on Providence.
(1) Luke ix. 3.
THE fSISTORY OF PERSECUTION. oGl
One thing however he assured them of, that they should
be " 1 delivered up to the councils, and scourged in the syna-
gogues, and be hated of all men for his sake." So far was he
from giving them a power to persecute, that he foretold theni
they must suffer persecution for his name. This the event
abundantly justified : And how amiable was their behaviour
under it ? How greatly did they recommend the religion
they taught, by the methods they took to propagate it?
" The arms of their warfare were not carnal, but spiritual."
The argument they used to convince those they preached to,
was the " demonstration of the spirit, and of power." They
" approved themselves as the ministers of God, by much pa-
tience, by afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprison-
ments, tumults, labours, watchings, fastings, pureness, know-
ledge, long-suffering, kindness; by the Holy Ghost, by love
unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, and by
the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left."
Oh how unlike were their pretended successors to them in
these respects! How different their methods to convince gain-
sayers! Excommunications/ suspensions, fines, banishments,
imprisonments, bonds, scourges, tortures and death, were the
powerful arguments introduced into the church ; and recom-
mended, practised, and sanctified by many of the pretended
fathers of it.
Even those whom superstition hath dignified by the name
of saints, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Gregory, Cyril, and others/
grew wanton with power, cruelly oppressed those who differed
from them, and stained most of their characters with the
guilt of rapine and murder. Their religious quarrels were
managed with such an unrelenting, furious zeal, as disturbed
the imperial government, threw kingdoms and nations into con-
fusion, and turned the church itself into an aceldama, or
field of blood. Some few there have been who were of a dif-
ferent spirit ; who not only abstained from persecuting coun-
(1) Matt. x. 17.
3 A
362 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
sels and measures, themselves, but with great justice and free-
dom censured them in others. But as to your saints and
fathers, your patriarchs and bishops, your councils and synods,
together with the rabble of monks, they were most of them
the advisers, abettors, and pradisers of persecution. They
knew not how to brook opposition to their own opinions and
power, branded all doctrines different from their own with the
odious name of heresy, and used all their arts and influence to
oppressvand destroy those who presumed to maintain them.
And this they did with such unanimity and constancy,
through a long succession of many ages, as would tempt a
stander-by to think that a bishop or clergyman, and a perse-
cutor, were the same thing, or meant the self-same individual
character and office in the christian church.
I am far from writing these things with any design to
depreciate .and blacken the episcopal order in general. It is
an office of great' dignity and use, according to the original
design of its institution. But when that design is forgotten,
or wholly perverted ; when, instead of becoming " Overseers"
of the flock of Christ, the bishops " tear and devour" it, and
proudly usurp " Dominion over the Consciences of" Chris-
tians, when they ought to be content with being " helpers of
their joy." I know no reason why the name should be compli-
mented, or the character held sacred, when it is abused to
insolence, oppression and tyranny "; or why the venerable
names of fathers and saints should screen the vices of the
bishops of former ages, who, notwithstanding their writing in
behalf of Christianity and orthodoxy, brought some of them
the greatest disgrace on the christian religion, by their
wicked practices, and exposed it .to the severest satire of its
professed enemies : and for the truth of this, 1 appeal to the
foregoing history.
If any observations on their conduct should affect the tem-
per and principles of any now living, they themselves only are
answerable for it, and welcome to make what use and applica*
tion of them they please. Sure I am that the representing
them in their true light, reflects an honour upon those reverend
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 363
and worthy prelates, who maintain that moderation and humi-
lity which is essential to the true dignity of the episcopal cha-
racter, and who use no other methods of conviction and per-
suasion but those truly apostolical ones, of sound reasoning and
exemplary piety. May God grant a great increase, and a
continual succession of them in the christian church !
SECT. II.
The Things for which Christians have persecuted one anotlier
generally of small importance.
But as the truth of history is not to be concealed ; and as
it can do no service to the christian cause to palliate the faults
of any set of christians whatsoever, especially when all parties
have been more or less involved in the same guilt ; I must
observe farther, as an aggravation of this guilt, that the things
for which christians have persecuted each other, have been
generally " matters of no importance in religion," and often-
times such as have been " directly contrary" to the nature of
it. If my reader would know upon what accounts the church
hath been filled with divisions and schisms ; why excommuni-
cations and anathemas have been so dreadfully tossed about ;
what hath given occasion to such a multitude of suspensions,
depositions and expulsions ; what hath excited the clergy to
such numberless violencies, rapines, cruelties, and murders,
lie will probably be surprised to be informed that it is nothing
of any consequence or real importance, nothing relating to the
substance and life of pure and undefiled religion ; little besides
hard words, technical terms, and inexplicable phrases, points
of mere speculation, abstruse questions, and metaphysical
notions ; rites and ceremonies, forms of human invention, and
3 a 2
364 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
certain institutions, that have had their rise and foundation
only in superstition : these have been the great engines of
division ; these the sad occasions of persecution.
Would it not excite sometimes laughter, and sometimes'
indignation, to read of a proud and imperious prelate excom-
municating the whole christian church, and sending, by whole-
sale, to the devil, ail who did not agree with him in the pre-
cise day of observing Easter? Especially when there is so
far from being any direction given by Christ or his apostles
about the dav, that there is not a single word about the festi-
val itself. And is it not an amazing instance of stupidity and
superstition, that such a paltry and whimsical controversy
should actually engage, for many years, the whole christian
world, and be debated with as much warmth and eagerness, as
if all the interests of the present and future state had been at
stake ; as if Christ himself had been to be crucified afresh, and
his whole gospel to be subverted and destroyed.
The Arian controversy, that made such havoc in the
christian church, was, if I may be allowed to speak it
without offence, in the beginning only about words ; though
probably some of Arius' party went farther afterwards than
Arius himself did at first. Arius, as hath been shewn, ex-
pressly allowed the son to be " before ail times and ages,
perfect God, unchangeable," and begotten after the most per-
fect likeness of the unbegotten father.
This, to me, appears to bid very fair for orthodoxy ;
and was, I think, enough to have reconciled the bishop and
his presbyter, if there had not been some other reasons of the
animosity between them. But when other terms were invent-
ed, that were hard to be understood, and difficult to be ex-
plained, the original controversy ceased; and the dispute then
was about the meaning of those terms, and the fitness of their
use in explaining the divinity of the Son of God.
Arius knew not how to reconcile the bishop's words,
" ever begotten," with the assertion, that the Son, co-exists
" unbegottenly with God;v and thought it little less than a
contradiction to affirm, that he was " unbegottenly begotten. '
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 365
And as to the word " consubstantial," Arius seems to have
thought that it destroyed the personal subsistence of the Son,
and brought in the doctrine of Sabeliius ; or else that it im-
plied that the Son was " a part of the Father;" and for this
reason declined the use of it. And, indeed, it doth not ap-
pear to me that the council of Nice had themselves any de-
terminate and fixed meaning to the word, as I think may be
fairly inferred from the debates of that council with Eusebius,
bishop of Caesarea, about that term; which, though put into
their creed, in opposition to the Arians, was yet explained by
them in such a sense, as almost any Arian could have, bona
fide, subscribed.
On the other hand, the bishop of Alexandria seems to
have thought, that when Arius asserted that the son existed
"by the will and counsel of the Father;" it implied the
mutability of his nature; and that, when he. taught concern-
ing the Son,~ " that there was a, time when he was not,"
it inferred his being a temporary, and not an eternal being ;
though Arius expressly denied both these consequences.
In short, it was a controversy upon this metaphysical ques-
tion, " 1 whether or no God could generate or produce a
being, in strictness of speech, as eternal as himself? Or,
whether God's generating the Son doth not necessarily imply
the pre-existence of the Father, either in conception, or some
small imaginable point of time ;" as Arius imagined, and
the bishop denied.
This was, in fact, the state of this controversy. And did
not the emperor Constantine give a just character of this debate,
when he declared the occasion of the difference to be very
trilling ; and that their quarrels arose from an idle itch of dis-
putation, since they did not contend about any essential doc-
trine of the gospel ? could these hard words and inexplicable
points justify the clergy in their intemperate zeal, and in their
treating each oilier with the rancour and bitterness of the most
(1) Theod. E.H.I. 18. c. 5
358 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
implacable enemies? What hath the doctrine of real godli-
ness, what hath the church of God to do with these debates ?
Math the salvation of men's souls, and the practice of virtue,
any dependance upon men's receiving unscriptural words, in
which they cannot believe, because they cannot understand
them; and which, those who first introduced them, were not
able to explain ?
If I know my own heart, I would be far from giving up
any plain and important doctrine of the gospel. But will any
man coolly and soberly affirm, that nice and intricate questions,
that depend upon metaphysical distinctions, and run so high
as the most minute supposeable atom or point of time, can be
either plain or important doctrines of the gospel? Oh Jesus!
if thou be " the Son of tbe everlasting God, tbe brightness of
thy Father's glory, and the express image of his person;" if
thou art the most perfect resemblance of bis all-perfect good-
ness, that kind benefactor, 4hat God-like friend to tbe human
race, which the faithful records of thy life declare thee to be ;
how Can I believe the essential doctrines of thy gospel to be
ytbus wrapped up in darkness ? or, that tbe salvation of that
church, " which thou bast purchased, witli thy blood," de-
pends on such mysterious' and inexplicable conditions ? Jf thy
gospel represents thee right, surely thou must be better pleased
with tbe humble, peaceable christian, who when honestly
searching into tbe glories of thy nature, and willing to give
thee all tbe adoration thy great Father hatb ordered him to pay
thee, falls into some errors, as tbe consequence of human weak-
ness i than with that imperious and tyrannical disciple, who
divides thy members, tears the bowels of tby church, and
spreads confusion and sfrrife throughout thy followers and
friends, even for the sake of truths that lie remote from men's
understanding, and in which thou bast not thought proper to
make the full, the plain decision. If truth is not to be given
up for the sake of peace, I am sure peace is not to be facriflced
for the sake of such truths ; and if the gospel is a rule worthy
our regard, the clergy of those times can never be excused for
tbe contentions they raised, and tbe miseries they occasioned
in the christian world, upon account of them.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 367
The third and fourth general councils seem to have met
upon an occasion of muclv the like importance. The first
council of Nice determined the Sou to be a distinct hypostasis,
or person from, but of the same nature with the Father. The
id at Constantinople, added the Holy Ghost to the same
substance of the Father, and made the same individual na-
ture to belong equally and wholly to the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost ; thus making them three distinct persons in 0110
undivided essence. But as they determined the Son to be
truly man, as well as truly God, the bishops brought a new
controversy into the church, and fell into .furious 'debates and
quarrels about his personality.
Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, with his followers,
maintained two distinct persons in Christ, agreeable to his two
distinct natures. But St. Cyril j, the implacable enemy of
Nestorius, got a council to decree, that the two natures of God
and man being united together in our Lord, made one person
or Christ ; and to curse all who should affirm that there were
two distinct persons or subsistencies in him.
It is evident, that either Cyril and his council must have
been in the wrong in this decree, or the two former councils of
Nice and Constantinople wrong in theirs ; because it is cer-
tain, that they decreed the word person to be used in two
infinitely different senses. According to those of Nice and
Constantinople, one individual nature or essence contained
three distinct persons ; according to Cyril's council, two
natures or essences infinitely different, and as distinct as those
of God and man, constituted but one person. Now how
" one nature should be three persons, and yet two natures one
person," will require the skill even of infallibility itself to
explain ; and as these decrees are evidently contradictory to
one another, I am afraid we must allow that the Holy Ghost
had no hand in one or other of them.
This some of the clergy very easily observed ; and therefore,
to maintain the unity of the person of Christ, Eutyches and
Dioscorus maintained, that though Chi 1st consisted of two
naiures before his incarnation, yet after that he had but one
358 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
nature only. But this was condemned by the council of Glial-
cedon, and the contradictions of the former councils declared
all to be true, and rendered sacred with the stamp of ortho-
doxy. This was also ratified by the fifth council under Jus-
tinian, who also piously and charitably raked into the dust of
poor Origen, and damned him for an heretic.
But still there was a difficuly yet remaining, about the
person of Christ : for as Christ's being one person did not
destroy the distinction of his two natures, it became a very
important and warm controversy, whether Christ had any
more than one will, as he was but one person in two natures?
or, whether he had not two wills, agreeable to his two distinct
natures, united in one person? This occasioned the calling
the sixth general council, who determined it for the two wills ;
in which, according to my poor judgment, they were very
wrong. And had I had the honour to have been of this vene-
rable assembly, I would have completed the mystery, by
decreeing, that as Christ had but one person, he could have
but one personal will; but however, that as he had two
natures, he must also have two natural wills.
I beg my reader's pardon for thus presuming to offer my
own judgment, in opposition to the decree of the holy fathers ;
but at the same time I cannot help smiling at the thought of
two or three hundred venerable bishops and fathers thus
trifling in council, and solemnly playing at questions and com-
mands, to puzzle others, and divert themselves. Were it not
for the fatal consequences that attended their decisions, I
should look on them as u Bishops in masquerade," met to-
gether only to ridicule the order, or to set the people a laugh-
ing at so awkward a mixture of gravity and folly. Surely the
reverend clergy of those days had but little' to do amongst
their flocks, or but little regard to the nature and end of their
office. Had they been faithful to their character' instead of
" doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof came
envyy strife, railings, evil su musings, perverse disputifigs of
men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing
that gain is godliness, " they would have" consented to, and
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 369
taught wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness.
But this was not the temper of the times. It would have
been indeed more tolerable, had the clergy confined their
quarrels to themselves, and quarrelled only about speculative
doctrines and harmless contradictions. But to interest the
whole christian world in these contentions, and to excite furious
persecutions for the support of doctrines and practices, even
opposite to the nature, and destructive of the very end of
Christianity, is equally monstrous and astonishing. And jet
this is the case of the seventh general council, who decreed
the adoration of the Virgin Mary, of angels and of saints, of
relicts, of images and pictures, and who thereby obscured the
dignity, and corrupted the simplicity of the christian worship
and doctrine. This the venerable fathers of that council did,
and pronounced anathemas against all who would not come
into their idolatrous practices, and excited the civil power to
oppress and destroy them.
SECT. III.
Pride, ambition, and covetousness, the grand sources of
persecution.
Surely it could not be zeal for God and Christ, and the
truth and honour of Christianity; no real love to piety and
virtue, that prompted and led the bishops and their clergy on
to these acts of injustice and cruelty. Without any breach of
charity, it may be asserted of most, if not all of them, that
it was their pride, and their immoderate love of dominion,
grandeur and riches, that influenced them to these unworthy
and wicked measures. The interest of religion and truth, the
honour of God and the church, is I know the stale pretence ;
but a pretence, I am afraid, that hath but little probability or
tru th to support it.
Sb
370 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
For what hath religion to do with the observation of daj's ?
or, what could excite Victor to excommunicate so many
churches about Easter, but the pride of his heart, and to let
the world see how large a power he had to send souls to the
devil ? How is the honour of God promoted, by speculations
that have no tendency to godliness ? Will any man
seriously affirm, that the ancient disputes about w Hypos-
tasis, Consubstantial, &c." and the rest of the hard words
that were invented, did any honour to the name of Christ, or
were of any advantage to the religion of his gospel ? Or, can
he believe that Alexander, Alius, Athanasius, Macedonius,
and others, were influenced in all their contentions and quar-
rels, in all the confusions tbey were the authors of, and the
murders tbey occasioned, purely by religious motives?
Surely the honour of religion must be promoted by other
means ; and genuine Christianity may fFourish, and, indeed,
would have flourished much better, had these disputes never
been introduced into the church ; or had they been ma-
naged with moderation and forbearance. But such was the
haughtiness of the clergy, such their thirst of dominion over
the consciences of others, such their impatience of contradic-
tion, that nothing would content them bnt implicit faith to their
creeds, absolute subjection to their decrees, and subscription
to their articles without examination or conviction of their
truth ; or for want of ?hese, anathemas, depositions, banish-
ments, aud death.
The history of all the councils, and of almost all the
bishops, that is left us, is a demonstration of this sad truth.
What council can be named, that did not assume a power to
explain, amend, settle, and determine the faitli ? That did not
anathematize and depose those who could not agree to their
decisions, and that did not excite the emperors to oppress and
destroy them ? Was this the humility and condescension of ser-
vants and ministers ? Was not this lording it over the heritage
of God, seating themselves in the throne of the Son of God>
and making themselves owned as " fathers and masters," in
opposition to the express command of Christ to the contrary c
THE HISTORY OP PERSECUTION. 371
i Clemens Romanus, in his first epistle to the Corinthians,
cap. 44. tells us, That " the apostles knew, by the Lord
Jesus Christ, that the episcopal name and office would be the
occasion of contention in the christian church ; a noble in-
stance," says the learned Fell, in his remarks on the place, u of
the prophetic spirit of the apostolic age. Formerly," he adds,
that, " men's ambition and evil practices to obtain this dignity,
produced schisms and heresies." And it was indeed no won-
der that such disorders and confusions should be occasioned,
when the bishoprics were certain steps, not only to power and
dominion, but to the emoluments and advantages of riches and
honours.
Even long before the time of Constantine, the clergy had
got a very great ascendant over the laity, and grew, many of
them, rich, by the voluntary oblations of the people: But the
grants of that emperor confirmed them in a worldly spirit, and
the dignities and vast revenues that were annexed to many of
the sees, gave rise to infinite evils and disturbances. So they
could but get possession of them, they cared not by what
means; whether by clandestine ordinations, scandalous sy-
mony, the expulsion of the possessors, or through the blood
of their enemies. How many lives were lost at Rome, Con-
stantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, by the furious conten-
tions of the bishops of those sees ; deposing one another, and
forcibly entering upon possession? Would Athanasius, and
Macedonius, Damasus, and others, have given occasion to
such tumults and murders, merely for words and creeds, had
there not been somewhat more substantial to have been got by
their bishoprics ? Would Cyril have persecuted the Novatians,
had it not been for the sake of their riches, of which he plun-
dered them, soon after his advancement to the see of Alex-
andria? No. The character given by the historian of Theodo-
cius, bishop of Synada, may be too truly applied to almost all
the rest of them ; who persecuted the followers of Macedonius,
) A pud Cotel. p. 173. Edit. Arostel.
3b2
372 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
not from a principle of zeal for the faith, but through a cove-
tous temper, and the love of money. This St. Jerome observed
with grief, in the passage cited page 86, of this history ; Am-
mianus Marcellinus, an heathen writer, reproached them with,
in the passage cited page 102.
SECT. IV.
The decrees of councils and synods of no authority in matters
of faith.
I think it will evidently follow from this account, that
the determinations of councils, and the decrees of synods, as
to matters of faith, are of no manner of authority, and can
carry no obligation upon any christian whatsoever. I will
not mention here one reason, which would be itself sufficient,
if all others were wanting, viz. That they have no power given
them, in any part of the gospel revelation, to make these de-
cisions in controverted points, and to oblige others to subscribe
them ; and that therefore the pretence to it is an usurpation of
what belongs to the great God, who only hath, and can have
a right to prescribe to the consciences of men.
But to let this pass ; what one council can be fixed upon,
that will appear to be composed of such persons, as, upon an
impartial examination, can be allowed to be fit for the work of
settling the faith, and determining all controversies relating to
it? I mean, in which the majority of the members may, in
charity, be supposed to be disinterested, wise, learned, peace-
able and pious men ? Will any man undertake to affirm this
of the council of Nice? Can any thing be more evident, than
that the members of that venerable assembly came, many of
them, full of passion and resentment; that others of them were
crafty and wicked, and others ignorant and weak ? Did their
meeting together in a synod immediately cure them of their de-
sire of revenge, make the wicked virtuous, or the ignorant
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 373
wise? If not, their joint decree, as a synod, could really be of
no more weight than their private opinions ; nor perhaps of so
much ; because, it is well known, that the great transactions of
such assemblies are generally managed and conducted by a
few; and that authority, persuasion, prospect of interest, and
other temporal motives, are commonly made use of to secure a
majority. The orthodox have taken care to destroy all the
accounts given of this council by those of the opposite party;
and Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, hath passed it over in silence;
and only dropped two or three hints, that are very far from
being favourable to those reverend fathers. In a word, no-
thing can be collected from friends or enemies, to induce one
to believe that they had any of those qualifications which were
necessary to fit them for the province they had undertaken, of
settling the peace of the church by a fair, candid and impar-
tial determination of the controversy that divided it : So that
the emperor Constantine, and Socrates the historian, took the
most effectual method to vindicate their honour, by pronouncing
them inspired by the Holy Ghost; which they had great need
of, to make up the want of all other qualifications.
The second general council were plainly the creatures of
the emperor Theodosius, all of his own party, and convened to
do as he bid them ; which they did, by confirming the Nicene
faith, and condemning all heresies: i A council of " geese
and cranes, and chattering jackdaws;" noisy and tumultuous,
endlessly contending for episcopal sees and thrones. The
third general council were the creatures of Cyril, who was
their president, and the inveterate enemy of Nestorius, whom
he condemned for heresy, and was himself condemned for his
rashness in this affair, and excommunicated by the bishop of
Antioch. The fourth met under the awes of the emperor
Marcian ; managed their debates with noise and tumult, were
formed into a majority by the intrigues of the legates of Rome,
and settled the faith by the opinions of Athanasius, Cyril, and
(1) Greg. Naz. Vol.11, p. 81.
374 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
and others. I need not mention more; the farther we go,
the worse they will appear.
Now may it not be asked, how came the few bishops, who
mettjy command of Theodosius, this council of wasps, to be
stiled an oecumenical or general council ? As they came to
decree, as he decreed they should, what authority, with any
wise man, can their decisions have ? As they were all of one side,
except thirty-six of the Macedonian party who were afterwards
added, what less could be expect eci, but that they would de-
cree themselves orthodox, establish their own creed, and ana-
thematize all others for heretics ? And as to the next council,
I confess I can pay no respect or reverence to a set of clergy
met under the direction and influence of a man of Cyril's prin-
ciples and morals ; especially as the main transaction of that
council was hurried on by a desire of revenge, and done before
the arrival of the bishop of Antioch, with his suffragan bre-
thren, and condemned by him as soon as he was informed of
it ; till at length the power and influence of the emperor re-
conciled the two haughty prelates, made them reverse their
mutual excommunications, decree the same doctrine, and join
in pronouncing the same Anathemas. Cannot any one discern
more of resentment and pride in their first quarrel, than of a
regard to truth and peace ; and more of complaisance to the
emperor, than of concern for the honour of Christ, in their
after reconciliation ? And as to the next council, let any one
but read over the account given of it by Evagrius ; what hor-
rible confusions there were amongst them ; how they threw
about anathemas and curses ; how they fathered their violences
on Christ; how they settled the faith by the doctrines of
Athanasius, Cyril, and other fathers ; and if he can bring him-
self to pay any reverence to their decrees, I envy him not the
submission, he pays them, nor the rule by whieh he guides and
determines his belief.
I confess I cannot read the account of these transactions,
their ascribing their anathemas and curses to Christ and the
Holy Trinity, and their decisions as to the faith, to the Holy
Ghost, without indignation at the horrid abuse of those sacred
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 375
names. * Their very meeting to pronounce damnation on their
adversaries, and to form creeds for the consciences of others, is
no less than a demonstration that they had no concurrence of
the Son of God, no influence of the Holy Spirit of God. The
faith was already settled for them, and for all other christians,
in the sacred writings, and needed no decision of councils to
explain and amend it. The very attempt was insolence and
usurpation. Infallibility is a necessary qualification for an
office of such importance. But what promise is there made
to councils of this divine gift? or, if (here should be any such
promise made to them ; yet the method of their debates, their
scandalous arts to defame their adversaries, and the contradic-
tions they decreed for truth and gospel, prove, to the fullest
conviction, that they forfeited the grace of it. And indeed, if
the fruits of the spirit are love, peace, long-suifering, gentleness,
goodness and meekness, there appeared few or no signs of them
in any of the councils. The soil was too rank and hot to pro-
duce them.
I wish, for the honour of the former times, I could give a
better account of these assemblies of the clergy, and see reason
to believe myself that they were, generally speaking, men of
integrity, wisdom, candour, moderation and virtue. The
debates of such men would have deserved regard, and their
opinions would have challenged a proper reverence. But
even had this been the case, their opinions, could have been
no rule to others \ and how great a veneration soever we
might have had for their characters, we ought, as men and
christians, to have examined their principles. There is one
rule superior to them and us, by which christians are to try
all doctrines and spirits ; the decision of which is more sacred
than that of all human wisdom and authority, and every
where, and in all ages, obligatory. But as the ancient coun-
cils consisted of men of quite other dispositions ; and as ihejr
decisions in matters of faith were arbitrary and unwarranted;
and as those decisions themselves were generally owing to
court practices, intriguing statesmen, the thirst of revenge
the management of a few crafty interested bishops to noise and
376 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
tumult, the prospects and hopes of promotions and transla-
tions, and other the like causes, the reverence paid them by
many christians is truly surprising ; and I cannot account for
it any way but one, viz. that those who thus cry up their
authority, are in hopes of succeeding them in their power ;
and therefore would fain persuade others that their decrees are
sacred and binding, to make way for the imposing of their own.
It would be well worth the while of some of these council-
mongers to lay down some proper rules and distinctions, by
which we may judge what councils are to be received, and
which to be rejected ; and particularly why the four first
general councils should be submitted to, in preference to all
others. Councils have often decreed contrary to councils,
and the same bishops have decreed different things in dif-
ferent councils ; and even the third and fourth general councils
determined the use of the word person in an infinitely dif-
ferent sense from what the two first did. Heretical councils,
as they are called, have been more in number than some ortho-
dox general ones, called by the same imperial authority, have
claimed the same powers, pretended to the same influence of
the Holy Ghost, and pronounced the same anathemas against
principles and persons By what criteria or certain marks
then must we judge, which of these councils are thieving,
general, particular, orthodox, heretical, and which not? The
councils themselves must not be judges in their own cause ; for
then we must receive, or reject them all. The characters of
the bishops that composed them will not do, for their charac-
ters seem equally amiable and christian on each side. The na-
ture of the doctrine, " as decreed by them," is far from being
a safe rule; because, if human authority, or church power
makes truth in any case, it makes it in every case ; and there-
fore, upon this foot, the decrees at Tyre and Ephesus are as
- truly binding, as those at Nice and Chalcedon. Or, if we
must judge of the councils by the nature of the doctrine, ab-
stracted from all human authority, those councils can have no
authority at all. Every man must sit in judgment over them,
and try them by reason and scripture, and reject and receive
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 377
them, just as he would do the opinions of any other persons
whatsover. And, I humbly conceive, they should have no
better treatment, because they deserve none.
SECT. V.
The imposing Subscriptions to Human Creeds unreasonable
and pernicious.
If then the decrees of fathers and councils, if the decisions
of human authority in matters of religion are of no avail, and
carry with them no obligation ; it follows, that the imposing
subscriptions to creeds and articles of faith, as tests of ortho-
doxy, is a thing unreasonable in itself, as it hath proved of
infinite ill consequence in the church of God.
I call it an " unreasonable custom," not only because where
there is no power to make creeds for others, there can be no
right to impose them; but because no one good reason can he
assigned for the use and contftfuance of this practice. For, as
my Lord Bishop of London admirably well explains this mat-
ter1, " As long as men are men, and have different degrees of
understanding, and every one a partiality to his own concep-
tions, it is not to be expected that they should agree in any
one entire scheme, and every part of it, in the circumstances as
well as the substance, in the manner of things, as well as in the
things themselves. The question therefore is not in general
about a difference in opinion, which, in our present state, is
unavoidable ; but about the weight and importance of the
things wherein christians differ, and the things wherein they
agree. And it will appear, that the several denominations of
£—- ~^ — *
(1) Bisbop of London's 2d Pastoral Letter, p. 24, 25.
3G
378 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
christians agree both iii the substance of religion, and in the
necessary inforcements of the practice of it. That the world
and all things in it, were created by God, and are under the
direction and government of his all-powerful hand, and all-
seeing eye ; that there is an essential difference between good
and evil, virtue and vice; that there will be a state of future
rewards and punishments, according to our behaviour in this
life; that Christ was a teacher sent from God, and that his
apostles were divinely inspired ; that all christians are bound
to declare and profess themselves to be his disciples ; that not
only the exercise of the several virtues, but also a belief in
Christ is necessary, in order to their obtaining the pardon of
sin, the favour of God, and eternal life ; that the worship of
God is to be performed chiefly by the heart, in prayers, praises,
and thanksgivings ; and, as to all other points, that they are
bound to live by the rules which Christ and his apostles have
left them in the holy scriptures." Here then, adds the learned
bishop, " is a fixed, certain, and uniform rule of faith and
practice, containing all the most necessary points of religion,
established by a divine sanction, embraced as such by all de-
nominations of christians, and in itself abundantly sufficient to
preserve the knowledge and practice of religion in the world.
As to points of greater intricacy, and which require uncommon
degrees of penetration and knowledge ; such indeed have been
subjects of dispute, amongst persons of study and learning, in
the several ages of the christian church; but the people are
not obliged to enter into them, so long as they do not touch the
foundations of Christianity, nor have an influence upon practice^
In other points it is sufficient that they believe the doctrines,
so far as they find, upon due enquiry and examination, ac-
cording to their several abilities and opportunities, that God
hath revealed them."
Tins incomparable passage of this reverend and truly cha-
ritable prelate, I have transcribed intire ; because it will un-
doubtedly give a sanction to my own principles of universal
benevolence and charity. His lordship affirms, . that " all de-
nominations of christians agree in the substance of religion, and
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 379
in the necessary enforcement of the practice of it ;" inasmuch
as they do all believe firmly and sincerely those principles
winch his lordship calls, with great reason and truth, u a fixed ^
certain, and uniform rule of faitli and practice, as containing
all the most necessary points of religion, and in itself abund-
antly sufficient to preserve the knowledge and practice of reli-
gion in the world."
My inference from this noble concession, for which all the
friends to liberty, in church and state, throughout Great Bri-
tain, will thank his lordship, is this; that since all denomina-
tions of christians do, in his lordship's judgment, receive his
fixed, certain, and uniform rule of faith, and embrace all the
most necessary points of religion ; to impose subscriptions to
articles of faith and human creeds, must be a very unreasonable
and needless thing : for either such articles and creeds contain
nothing more than this same rule of faith and practice, and
then all subscription to them is impertinent, because this is
already received by all denominations of christians, and is
abundantly sufficient, by the bishop's own allowance, to pre-
serve the knowledge and practice of religion in the world ; .or
such articles and creeds contain something more than his
lordship's fixed rule of faith and practice, something more than
all the most necessary points of religion, something more than
is sufficient to preserve the knowledge and practice of religion
in the world, h. e. some very unnecessary points of religion,
something on which the preservation of religion doth not de-
pend ; and of consequence, subscriptions to unnecessary ar-
ticles of faith, on which religion doth not depend, can never
be necessary to qualify any person for a minister of the church
of Christ, and therefore not for the church of England, if that
be part of the church of Christ. And this is the more uneces-
sary, because, as his lordship farther well observes, " the people
are not obliged to enter into them, so long as they do not touch
the foundations of Christianity," i. e. so far as his lordship's
certain, fixed and uniform rule, which contains all necessary
points of religion, is not affected by them. And if the people
are not obliged to enter into points of great intricacy and dis-
3 c 2
380 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
pute, I humbly conceive the clergy cannot be obliged to
preach them ; and that of consequence it is as absurd to impose
upon them subscriptions to such things, as to oblige them to
subscribe what they need not preach, nor any of their people
believe.
Upon his lordship's principles, the imposing subscriptions
to the hard, unscriptural expressions of the Athanasians and
Arians, by each party in their turns, and to the thirty-nine ar-
ticles of the church of England, must be a very unreasonable
and unchristian thing ; because, the peculiarities to be sub-
scribed, do not one of them enter into his specified points of
religion, and of consequence are not necessary to preserve re-
ligion in the world ; and after so public a declaration of charity
towards all denominations of christians, and the safety of reli-
gion and the church, upon the general principles he hath laid
down, there is no reason to doubt but his lordship will use that
power and influence which God hath entrusted him with, to
remove the wall of separation in the established church, in
order to the uniting all differing sects, all denominations of
christians, in one visible communion ; and that he will join in
that most chrtstian and catholic prayer and benediction of one
of his own brethren, though disapproved of by another of nar-
rower principles, " * blessed be they who have contributed to
so good a work."
Subscriptions have ever been a grievance in the church of
God ; and the first introduction of them was owing to pride,
and the claim of an unrighteous and ungodly power. Neither
the warrant of scripture, nor the interest of truth, made them
necessary. It is, I think, but by few, if any, pretended that
the sacred writings countenance this practice. They do in-
deed abound with directions and exhortations to " adhere sted-
fastly to the faith, not to be moved from the faith % nor tossed
about with every wind of doctrine." But what is the faith
(I) Bishop of Bangor's answer to the Dean of Worcester, postscript,
p. 207.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 381
-which we are to adhere to ? What the faitli established and
stamped for orthodox by the bishops and councils? Ridicu-
lous ! If this was the case, our faith must be as various as theif
creeds, and as absurd and contradictory as their decisions. No :
The Faith we are to be grounded and settled in, is that " which
was at once delivered to the saints," that which was preached
by the apostles to Gentiles as well as Jews ; " the wholesome
words we are to consent to are the words of pur Lord Jesus
Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness."
This all genuine christians receive, out of regard to a much
higher authority than belongs to any set of men in the world ;
and therefore the sanction of fathers and councils in this case,
is as impertinent as a man's pretending to give a sanction
to the constitutions of the great God. And as to all other ar-
ticles of faith, neither they, nor any others, have any commis-
sion to impose them on the consciences of men ; and the mo-
ment they attempt to do it, they cease to be servants in the house
of God, and act as the true and proper lords of the heritage.
But it may be said, that " the church hath power to deter-
mine in controversies of faith ; so as not to decree any thing
against scripture, nor to enforce any thing to be believed as
necessary to salvation besides it;" L e. I suppose the church
hath power to s^uard the truths of scripture ; and in any con-
troversies about doctrines, to determine what is or is not agree-
able to scripture, and to enforce the reception of what they
thus decree, by obliging others to subscribe to their decisions.
If this be the case, then it necessarily follows, that their deter-
minations must be ever right, and constantly agreeable to the
doctrine of holy writ ; and that they ought never to determine
but when they are in the right ; and are sure they are
in the right ; because, if the matter be difficult in it*
nature, or the clergy have any doubts and scruples con-
cerning it, or are liable to make false decisions, they can,
not, with any reason, make a final decision ; because it is pos-
sible they may decide on the wrong side of the question, and
thus decree falsehood instead of truth.
I presume there are but few who will claim, in words so
382 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
extraordinary a power as that of establishing- falsehood in the
room of truth and scripture. But even supposing their deci-
sions to be right, how will it follow that they have a power
to oblige others to submit to and subscribe them ? If by sound
reason and argument they can convince the consciences of others,
they are sure of the agreement of all such with them in princi-
ple ; and, upon this foot, subscriptions are wholly useless : If
they cannot convince them, it is a Very unrighteous thing to
impose subscriptions on them; and a shameful prevarication
with God and man for any to submit to them without it.
Decisions made in controversies of faith, by the clergy,
carry in them no force nor evidence of iruth. Let their
office be ever so sacred, it doth not exempt them from
human frailties and imperfections. They are as liable to er-
ror and mistake, to prejudice and passion, as any of the laity
whatsoever can be. How then can the clergy have any autho-
rity in controversies of faith, which the laity have not ? That
they have erred in their decisions, and decreed light to be
darkness, and darkness light ; that they have perplexed the
consciences of men, and corrupted the simplicity of the faith in
Christ, ail their councils and synods are a notorious proof.
With what justice or modesty then can they pretend to a
power of obliging others to believe their articles, or subscribe
them ? If I was to speak the real truth, it will be found that
those numerous opinions which have been anathematized as
heretical, and which have broken the christian world into par-
ties, have been generally invented, and broached, and propa-
gated by the clergy. Witness Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius,
Eutyches, Dioscorus, and others ; and therefore if we may
judge, by any observations made on the rise of heresy, what is
a proper method to put a stop to the progress of it, it cannot
be the clergy's forming articles of faith, and forcing others to
subscribe them ; because this is the very method by which tfurf*
have established and propagated it.
The truth is, this method of preventing error will suit all
religions, and all sorts of principles whatsoever ; and is that
by which error maintains its ground, and is indeed rendered
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 383
impregnable. All the different sorts of christians, papists,
and protestants, Greeks, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Arraini-
ans, cannot certainly be right in 'their discriminating princi-
ples. And yet where shall we find any clergy that do not
pretend a right to impose subscriptions, and who do not main-
tain the truth of the articles to which they make such subscrip-
tion necessary ? Upon this foot the doctrines of the council
of Trent, the thirty-nine articles of the church of England,
and the assemblies confession of faith, are all of them equally
true, christian and sacred ; for they are, in different places
embraced as standards of orthodoxy, and their sacredness and
authority secured and maintained by the subscriptions of the
clergy to them : and therefore I think it as little agreeable to
prudence, as it is to justice, for christians to keep up a practice
that may be so easily, and hath been so often turned into a
security for heresy, superstition and idolatry ; and especially
for protestants to wear any longer these marks of slavery,
which their enemies, whenever they have power, will not fail
to make use of, either to fetter their consciences, or distinguish
them for the burning.
But it may be said, that the abuse of subscriptions is no
argument against the use of them ; and that as they are pro~
per to discover what men's sentiments are, they may be so far
sometimes a guard and security to the truth . But as all parties,
who use them*, will urge this reason for them, that they are in
possession of the truth, and therefore willing to do all they can to
secure and promote it ; of consequence, subscriptions to articles
of faith can never be looked on properly as guards to real
truth, but as guards to certain prevailing principles, whether
true or false. And even in this case they are wholly ineffectual.
The clergy of the church of England are bound to sub-
scribe the thirty-nine articles, i. e. to the truth of Athanasian
and Calvinistic principles. But hath this subscription an-
swered its end ? Do not the clergy, who are all subscribers,
and who often repeat their subscriptions, differ about these
heads as much as if they had never subscribed at all ? Men
that have no principles of religion and virtue, but enter
384 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
the chnrch only with a view to the benefices and preferments
of it, *will subscribe ten thousand times over, and to any
articles that can be given them, whether true or false. Thus
the Asiatic bishops subscribed to the condemnation of the de-
crees of the council of Chalcedon, and inform Basiliscus the
emperor that their subscriptions were voluntary. And yet
when Basiliscus was deposed, they iromediaiely subscribed to
the truth of those decrees, and swore their first subscription
was involuntary. So thaf subscriptions cannot keep out any
atheists, infidels, or profligate persons. And as to others,
daily experience teaches us, that they either disbelieve the
articles they subscribe, subscribing them only as articles of
peace : or else, that after they have subscribed them, they see
reason, upon a more mature deliberation, to alter their minds?
and change their original opinions. So that till men can be
brought always to act upon conscience, never to subscribe what
they do not believe, nor ever to alter their judgment, as to the
articles they have subscribed ; subscriptions are as impertinent
and useless as they are unreasonable, and can never answer
the purposes of those who impose them.
But I apprehend farther, that this imposing of subscrip-
tions is u not only an unreasonable custom," but attended
with many very pernicious consequences. It is a great hin-
drance to that freedom and impartiality of inquiry which is the
unalterable duty of every man, and necessary to render his
religion reasonable and acceptable. For why should any
person make any inquiries for his own information, when his
betters have drawn up a religion for him, and thus kindly
saved him the labour and pains ? And as his worldly interest
may greatly depend on his doing as he is bid, and subscrib-
ing as he is ordered ; is it not reasonable to think that the
generality will contentedly take every thing upon trust, and
prudently refrain from creating to themselves scruples and
doubts, by nicely examining what they are to set their hands
to, lest they should miss of promotion for not being able to
comply with the condition of it, or enjoy their promotions with
a dissatisfied and uneasy conscience ?
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 385
Subscript ions will, I own, sometimes prove marks of distinc-
tion, and as walls of separation : For though men of integrity
and conscience may, and oftentimes undoubtedly do submit to
them ; yet men of no principles, or very loose ones, worldly
and ambitious men, the thoughtless and ignorant, will most
certainly do it, when they find it for their interest. The church
that encloses herself with these fences, leaves abundant room
for the entrance of all persons of such characters. To whom
then doth she refuse admittance ? Why, if to any, it must be
to men who cannot bend their consciences to their interest ;
who cannot believe without examination, nor subscribe any ar-
ticles of faith as true, without understanding and believing
them. It is in the very nature of subscriptions to exclude
none but these, and to distinguish such only for shame and pu-
nishment. Now how is this consistent with any thing that is
called reason or religion ?
If there could be found out any wise and reasonable rh$~
thods to throw out of the christian church and ministry, men.
who are in their hearts unbelievers, who abide in the church
only for the revenues she yields to them, who shift their religi-
ous and political principles according to their interest, vwho
propagate doctrines inconsistent with the liberties of mankind,
and are scandalous and immoral in their lives ; if subscriptions
could be made to answer these ends, and these only, and to
throw infamy upon such men, and upon such men only, no
one would have any thing to alledge against the use of them.
Whereas, in truth, subscriptions are the great securities of
such profligate wretches, who by complying with them, enter
into the church , and thereby share in all the temporal advantages
of it ; whilst the scrupulous, conscientious christian, is the only
one she excludes ; who thinks the word of God a more sure
rule of faith than the dictates of men ; and that subscriptions
are things much too sacred to be trifled with, or lightly submit-
ted to.
They are indeed very great snares to many persons, and
temptations to them too often to trespass upon the rules of strict
honesty and virtue. For when men's subsistence and advan-
3 D
386 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
tages in the world depend on their subscribing to certain ar-
ticles of faith, it is one of the most powerful arguments that can
be, to engage them to comply with it. It is possible indeed
they may have their objections against the reasonableness and
truth of what they are to subscribe : But will not interest often
lead them to overlook their difficulties, to explain away the
natural meaning of words, to put a different sense upon the ar-
ticles than what they will fairly bear, to take them in any sense,
and to subscribe them in no sense, only as articles of peace ?
It must be by some such evasions that Arians subscribe to
Athanasian creeds, and Arminians to principles of rigid Cal-
vinism. This the clergy have been again and again reproached
with, even by the enemies of Christianity : and I am sorry to
say it, they have not been able to wipe off the scandal from
themselves. I am far from saying or believing that all the
clergy make these evasive subscriptions : those only that do so
give this offence ; and if they are, in other cases, men of in_
tegrity and conscience, they are objects of great compassion.
As far as my own judgment is concerned, I think this man-
ner of subscribing to creeds and articles of faith, is infamous
in its nature, and vindicable upon no principles of conscience
and honour. It tends to render the clergy contemptible in the
eyes of the people, who will be apt to think that they have but
little reason to regard the sermons of men, who have prevarica-
ted in their subscriptions, and that they preach for the same
reason only that they subscribed, vfc. their worldly interest.
It is of very pernicious influence and example, and in its con-
sequences leads to the breach of all faith amongst mankind, and
tends to the subversion of civil society. For if the clergy are
known to prevaricate in subscribing to religious tests of ortho-
doxy, is it not to be feared that others may learn from them to
prevaricate in tli eir subscriptions to civil tests of loyalty ? and,
indeed, there is a great deal of reason to imagine, that if men can
tutor and twist their consciences so as to subscribe articles of
faith, contrary to their own persuasion, and only as articles of
peace, or a qualification for a living, they would subscribe for
the same reason to Popery or Mahometanism : For if this be
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 387
a good reason for subscribing any articles which I do not be-
lieve, it is a reason for subscribing all ; and therefore I humbly
apprehend that a practice, which gives so much ^occasion to
such scandalous prevarications with God and man, should be
cast oft' as an insufferable grievance, and as a yoke upon the
necks of the clergy, too heavy for them to bear.
Let me add farther, that this practice of imposing sub-
scriptions, hath been the occasion of innumerable mischiefs in
the church of God. It was the common cry of the orthodox
and Arians, and all other heretics, in their turns of power,
" either subscribe, or depart from your churches." This en-
flamed the clergy against each other, and filled them with
hatred, malice and revenge. .For as by imposing these sub-
scriptions, inquisition was made into the consciences of others;
the refusal to submit to them was a certain mark of heresy and
reprobation ; and the consequence of this was the infliction of
all spiritual and temporal punishments, It was impossible but
that such procedures should perpetuate the schisms and divi-
sions of the church, since the wrath of man cannot work the
righteousness of God ; and since civil punishments have no
tendency to convince the conscience^ but only to enflame the
passions against the advisers and infiiciers of them. And as
ecclesiastical history gives us so dreadful an account of the me-
lancholy and tragical effects of this practice, one would think
that no nation who knew the worth of liberty, no christian, pro-
testant, church, that hath any regard for the peace of the flock
of Christ, should ever be found to authorize and continue it.
SECT. VI.
Adherence to the Sacred Scriptures the' best Security of
Truth and Orthodoxy,
What security then shall we have left us for truth and or-
thodox, when our subscriptions are gone ? Why, the sacred
scriptures, those oracles of the great God, and freedom and li-
3d2
388 THE HIT-TORY OF PERSECUTION,
berty to interpret and understand them as we can ; the conse-
quence of this would be great integrity and peace of conscience,
in the enjoyment of our religious principles, union and friend-
ship amongst christians, notwithstanding all their differences
in judgment, and great respect and honour to those faithful
pastors, that carefully feed the flock of God, and lead them in-
to pastures of righteousness and peace. We shall lose only
the incumbrances of religion, our bones of contention, the
shackles of our consciences, and the snares to honesty and vir-
tue; whilst all that is substantially good and valuable, all
that is truly divine and heavenly, would remain to enrich
and bless us.
The clergy would indeed lose their power to do mischief;
but would they not be happy in that loss, especially as they
would be infinitely more likely to do good ? They would be no
longer looked on as fathers and dictators in the faith ; but still
they might remain " ambassadors for Christ, beseeching men
in Christ's stead, to become reconciled to God." And was all
human authority, in matters of faith, thus wholly laid aside,
would not the word of God have a freer course, and be much
more abundantly glorified ? All christians would look upon
scripture as the only rule of their faith and practice, and there-
fore search it with greater diligence and care, and be much
more likely to understand the mind of God therein. The main
things of Christianity would, unquestionably, be generally
agreed to by all; and as to other things, points of speculation
and difficult questions, if christians differed about them, their
differences would be of no great importance, and might be
maintained consistent with charity and peace.
Indeed, a strict and constant adherence to scripture, as the
only judge in controversies of the christian faith, would be the
most likely method to introduce into the church a real unifor-
mity of opinion, as well as practice. For if this was the case,
many disputes would be wholly at an end, as having nothing
to give occasion to them in the sacred writings ; and all others
would be greatly shortened, as hereby all foreign terms, and
human phrases of speech, by which the questions that have
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 389
been controverted amongst christians have been darkened and
perplexed, would be immediately laid aside, and the only in-
quiry would be, what is the sense of scripture? What the doc-
trine of Christ and his apostles? This is a much more short
and effectual way of determining controversies, than sending
men to Nice and Chalcedon, to councils and synods, to Atha-
nasius, orArius, to Calvin or A nnin ins, or any other persons
whatsoever that can be mentioned, who at best deliver but
their own sense of scripture, and are not to be regarded any far-
ther than they agree with it.
It was the departure from this, as the great standard of faith,
and corrupting the simplicity of the gospel-doctrine by hard,
unscripiural words, lis at gave occasion to the innumerable con-
troversies that formerly troubled the christian church. Human
creeds were substituted in the room of scripture ; and according
as circumstances differed, or new opinions were broached, so
were the creeds corrected, amended and enlarged, till they be-
came so full of subtleties, contradictions, and nonsense, as must
make every thoughtful man read many of them with contempt.
The controversy was not about scripture expressions, but
about the words of men ; not about the sense of scripture, but
the decrees of councils, and tlse opinions of Athanasius, Leo,
Cyril, and the venerable fathers. And upon this foot it was
no wonder their disputes should be endless ; since the writings
of all fallible men must certainly be more obscure and intricate
than the writings of the infallible spirit of truth, who could be
at no loss about the doctrines he dictated, nor for proper words
suitably to express them.
It is infinite, it is endless labour, to consult all that the fa-
thers have written ; and when we have consulted them, what
one controversy have they rationally decided ? What one chris-
tian doctrine have they clearly and solidly explained? How
few texts of scripture have they critically settled the sense and
meaning of ? How often do they differ from one another, and
in how many instances from themselves ? Those who read them,
greatly differ in their interpretation of them ; and men of the
most contrary sentiments, all claim them for their own. Atka-
390 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
nasians and Arians appeal to the fathers, and support their prin-
ciples^ quotations from them. And are these the venerable
gentlemen, whose writings are to be set up in opposition to the
scripture, or set up as authoritative judges of the sense of scrip-
ture ? Are creeds of their dictating to be submitted to as the only
criterion of orthodoxy, or esteemed as standards to distinguish
between truth and error? Away with this folly and super-
superstition ! The creeds of the fathers and councils are but hu-
man creeds, that have all the marks in them of human frailty
and ignorance, The creeds which are to be found in the gos-
pel are the infallible dictates of the spirit of the God of truth,
and as such claim our reverence and submission ; and as the
forming our principles according to them, as far as we are able
to understand them, makes us christians in the sight of God, it
should be sufficient to every one's being owned as a christian
by others, without their using any inquisitor j forms of trial, till
they can produce their commission from heaven for the use of
them. This, as it is highly reasonable in itself, would do the
highest honour to the christian clergy ; who, instead of being
reproached for haughtiness and pride, as the incendiaries and
plagues of mankind, as the sowers of contention and -strife, and
disturbers of the peace of the church of God, would be honoured
for their work's sake, esteemed for their characters, loved as
blessings to the world, heard with pleasure, and become succes-
ful in their endeavours to recommend the knowledge and prac-
tice of Christianity.
SEGT. VII.
The Christian Religion absolutely condemns Persecution for
conscience sake.
Were the doctrines of the gospel regarded as they should
be, and the precepts of the christian religion submitted to by
all who profess to believe it, universal benevolence would be
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 391
the certain effect, and eternal peace and union would reign
amongst the members of the christian church. For if there
are any commands of certain clearness, any precepts of evident
obligation in tjie gospel, they are such as refer to the exercise
of love, and the maintaining universal charity. In our Savi-
our's admirable discourse on the mount, this was the excellent
doctrine he taught : lU Blessed are the meek, for they shall in-
herit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy. Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called
the children of God." And in another place, describing the
nature of religion in general, he tells us, that 2ii the love
of God is the first commandment ; and that the second is like
unto it — thou shalt love thy neigh bonr as thyself." This he
enjoins upon his disciples as his peculiar command : 3" This
is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved
you ;" and recommends it to tbem as that whereby they were
to be distinguished from all other persons. 4U A new com-
mandment I give unto you, that ye love one another ; as I
have loved you, that ye also love one another. 5 By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love
one to another."
This was the more needful for them, considering that our
Lord foreknew the grievous persecutions that would befal them
for his sake ; to encourage them under which, he pronounces
them blessed : 6 " Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness-sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ;"
whilst, at the same time, he leaves a brand of infamy on per-
secutors, and marks them out for the vengeance of God :
7 " Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward
in heaven ; for so persecuted they the prophets that were
before you. 8 Woe unto you, for ye build the sepulchres of
the prophets, and your fathers killed them ; therefore, saith
the wisdom of God, I will send you prophets and apostles,
(1) Matt. v. 5, 7, 9. (2) Matt. xxii. 35, (3) John xv. J 2. (4) x'uu
k. (5) 35. (6) Matt. v. 10. (?) 12. (8) Luke xi. 47, &c.
392 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
and they will slay and persecute tliem, that the blood of ail
the prophets — may be required of this generation."
And indeed, so far was our Lord from encouraging any
persecuting methods, that he rebuked and put a stop to all the
appearances of them. Thus when his disciples would have
called down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans, who
refused to receive him, he rebuked them, and said, 1 "" Ye
know not what manner of spirit ye are of; the Son of Man is
not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them ;" and when
one of those who were with Christ cut oft' the ear of one of the
high priest's servants, upon his laying hands on him, he
severely reproved him: 2" Put up again thy sword into its
place ; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the
sword." And, in order to cure his apostles of their ambition
and pride, and to prevent their claiming an undue power, he
gave them an example of great humility and condescension, in
Washing and wiping their feet, and forbid them imitating the
3 M gentiles, by exercising dominion and authority ; but who-
ever will be great amongst you, let him be your minister; and
whosoever will be chief amongst you, let him be your servant ;
even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." And as
the Jewish teachers took on them the name of Rabbi, to denote
their power over the consciences of those they instructed, he
commanded his disciples, 4" Be ye not called Rabbi, for one
Is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren ; and call
no man father upon earth, for one is your father, which is in
heaven. But he that is greatest amongst you, shall be your
servant." From these, and other passages of like nature,
it is very evident, that there is nothing in the life of Jesus
Christ that gives any countenance to these wicked methods of
propagating and supporting religion, that some of his pretend-
ed followers have made use of, but the strongest directions to
the contrary.
(I ) Luke \x. 55, 56. (2) Mact. xxvi. 52. (3) xx. 25, &c. (4) Matt,
.xxiii. 8, &c.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 393
1 It is indeed objected, that Christ says, " compel them to come
in, that my house may be full :" but that this compulsion means
nothing more than invitation and persuasion, is evident from the
parallel place of scripture, where what St. Luke calls, 2U com-
pel them to come in," is expressed by, " bid them to the mar-
riage," i*. e< endeavour, not by force of arms, but by argument
and reason, by importunity and earnestness, and by setting before
men the promises and threatnings of the gospel, and thus ad-
dressing yourselves to their hopes and fears, to persuade and
compel them to embrace my religion, and become the subjects
of my kingdom; and in this moral sense of compulsion, the
original word is often used.
3 But farther, it is, by a late writer, reckoned very surpri-
sing, that Christ should say, Au Think not I am come to
send peace, I came not to send peace, but a sword ; for I am
come to set a man at variance with his father, and the daughter
against her mother, &c." But how is this so very surprising ?
or what man of common sense can mistake the meaning of the
words, who reads the whole discourse ? In the former part of
it, it is expressly declared, that the most grievous persecutions
should befal his disciples for his sake; that " brother should
deliver up brother to death, and the father the child ; and the
children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to
be put to death." Can any man understand this of an .inten-
tion in 'Christ to set people at variance? when it is a prediction
only of what should be the consequence of publishing his gos-
pel, through the malice and cruelty of its opposers ; a predic-
tion of what his disciples were to suffer, and not of what they
were to make others suffer.
And as to that passage in Luke, 5 " I am come to send fire
on the earth : and what will I, if it be already kindled ? Sup-
pose ye that I am come to give peace on earth ? I tell you nay,
but rather division." How is it explained by Christ himself?
Why, in the very next words : " For from henceforth," i. e.
(1) Luke xiv. 23. (2) Matt. xxii. 9. (3) Christianity as old, &c
3 05. (4) Matt. x. 34. 35. (5) Luke xii. 49, 51.
3e
39 I THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
upon the publication of my religion and gospel, " there shall
be rive in one house divided, three against two, and two against
three, &c." Can any man need paraphrase and criticism to
explain these passages of any thing, bat of that persecution
which should befal the preachers and believers of the gospel ?
or imagine i* to be a prophetic description of a fire to be blown
up by Christ to consume others, when the whole connection
evidently refers it to a fire, that the opposers of his religion
should blow up, to consume himself and followers? Jesus knew
it was such a fire as would first consume himself. " I am come
to send fire on the earth ; and what will I, if it be already
kindled?" or, as the words should be translated, " How do I
wish it was already kindled ? How do I wish it to break out
on my own person, that I might glorify God by my sufferings
and deatli ? For as it follows, " I have a baptism to be bap-
tised with," a baptism with my own blood: " arid how am I
straitened till it be accomplished!" After this account of his
own sufferings, he foretels the same should befal his followers :
" Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth ? I tell
you nay, but rather division ;" i. e. as I myself must suffer to
bear witness to the truth, so after my decease, such shall be the
unreasonable and furious opposition to my gospel, as shall oc-
casion divisions amongst the nearest relations, some of whom
shall hate and persecute the other for their embracing my reli-
gion. And of consequence * " Christ did not declare, in the
most express terms," as the fore-mentioned writer asserts, (t that
he came to do that which we must suppose he came to hinder."
He did only declare, that he came to do what he was resolved
not to hinder, i. e. to publish such a religion as his enemies
would put him to death for, and as would occasion divisions
amongst the nearest relations, through the unreasonable hatred
and opposition that some would shew to others upon account
of it. This matter is elsewhere clearly expressed by Christ :
2 " These things have I spoken to you, that ye should not be
(l)Ibid. (2) John x\i. 1,2, 3.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 395
offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues ; yea,
the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he
doth God service. And these things will they do unto you,
because they have not known the father nor me," i. e. have
not understood either natural religion, or the religion of
my gospel.
There is therefore nothing in the conduct or doctrines of
Jesus Christ to countenance or encourage persecution. His
temper was benevolent, his conduct merciful ; and one govern-
ing design of all he said, was to promote meekness and conde-
scension, universal charity and love. And in this all his
apostles were careful imitators of his example : * u Let love,"
saith St. Paul, " be without dissimulation ; be kindly affection-
ed one to another with brotherly love, in honour preferring one
another. 2 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peace-
ably with all men." And the love he recommended was such,
3 u as worketh no ill to his neighbour ;" and which therefore
he declares " to be the fulfilling of the law."
And, lest different sentiments in lesser matters should cause
divisions amongst christians, he commands, 4 " to receive him
that is weak in the faith, not to doubtful disputations," not to
debates, or contentions about disputations, or disputable things.
Upon accc ant of such matters, he orders that none should 5 u de-
spise or judge others, because God had received them ;"5 and
because every man ought to be " fully persuaded in his own
mind," and because 6 " the kingdom of God was not meat and
drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the holy ghost ; "
and because every one was to 7 " give an account of himself
to God," to whom alone, as his only master, he was to stand
or fall. From these substantial reasons he infers, 8 " "We then
that are strong," who have the most perfect understanding of
the nature of Christianity, and our christian liberty, 9 u ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves ;"
and having prayed for them, that the God of patience and con*
(I) Rom. xii. 9, 10. (2) 18. (3) xiii. 10. (4) Rom. xiv, 1. (5)
ibid. 3, fi, (6)17- (7)4. (8) xv. 1. (9)5.
3e2
396 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
solation would grant them to " be like-minded one towards
another," according to, or after the example of Christ, that,
notwithstanding the strength of some, and the weakness of
others, they might, * u with one mind, and with one mouth,
glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;" he
adds, as the conclusion of his argument, 2 Wherefore receive
ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. "
In his letters to the 3 Corinthians, he discovers the same di-
vine and amiable spirit. In his first epistle he beseeches them,
" by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would all
speak the same thing, and that there should be no schism
amongst them, but that they should be perfectly joined toge-
ther in the same mind, and in the same judgment;" i. e. that
they should all own and submit to Christ, as their only lord
and head, and not rank themselves under different leaders, as
he had been informed they had done ; for that they were 4 u the
body of Christ," and all of them his members, and ought there-
fore to maintain that charity to one another, * " which suffereth
long, and is kind ; which envieth not, vauntethnot itself, is not
puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own,
is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity,
butrejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth ail things,
liopeth all things, endureth all things ; which is greater and more
excellent than faith and hope, which fails not in he; en itself,"
where faith and hope shall be at an end; and without which,
though we could " speak with the tongue of men and angels,
should have the gift of prophesy, and understand all mysteries,
and all knowledge, and could remove mountains ; yea, though
we should bestow all our goods to feed the poor, and give our
bodies to be burned, we should be only as sounding brass, and
as a tinkling cymbal ;" nothing in the account of God, nothing
as to any real profit and advantage that will accrue to us. And,
in his second epistle, he takes his leave of them, with this di-
vine exhortation, and glorious encouragement: 6 " Finally bre-
(1)6. (2) Rom. xv 7. (3) 1 Co*. 1. 10, &c. (4) xii. 27. (5) xHt.
l,&c. (6) 2 Cor. xii j. 11.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 397
ihren, farewell; be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one
mind," be affectionate, and kindly disposed to one another,
as though you were influenced by one common mind : " Live
in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you."
In his epistle to the Galatians, i lie gives us a catalogue of
those works of the flesh which exclude men from the kingdom
of God; such as " adultery, fornication, — hatred, variance,
emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy ings," and the
like ; and then assures us, that " the fruits of the spirit are
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and temperance, against which there is no law;
and, after having laid down this as an essential principle of
Christianity, that 2 " neither circumcision availeth any thing,
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature ;" or, as it is expressed
in another place, " Faith which worketh by love;" he pro-
nounces this truly apostolic benediction, 3 " As many as walk
according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and
upon the Israel of God."
The same divine and excellent strain runs through his
letter to the Ephesians : 4 " I therefore, the prisoner of the
Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation where-
with ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-
suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace;" and the
term of this union, which he lays down, is the acknowledg-
ment of one catholic church, one spirit, one Lord and Media-
tor, and " One God, even the Father of all, who is above all,
through all, and in all." The contrary vices, of 5" bitterness
and wrath, and anger and clamour, and evil-speaking and
malice, are to be put away," as things that " grieve the Holy
Spirit of God?"6 and we must u be kind one to another,
forgiving one another even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven us ; 7 and be followers of God, by walking in love, even
as Christ hath also loved us, and hath given himself for us."
(I) Gal. v. 19, &c. (2) Chap. vi. 15. (3) 16. (4) Eph. iv. 1, &c.
(5) 31. (6) Eph. i?, 32. (7) Chap. v. 1, 2.
398 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
His exhortation to the Philippians, * is iii the most moving
terms : " If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort
of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels and mer-
cies, fulfil ye my joy ; that ye be like-minded, having the
same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be
done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than themselves."
In his exhortation to the Colossians, he warmly presses our
cultivating the same disposition, and abounding in the same
practice : 2 Put off all these, anger, wrath, malice ; — put on as
the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one
another, and forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave us.
And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond
of perfectness : and let the peace of God rule in your hearts,
to which also ye are called in one body."
In his directions to Timothy, he gives him this summary
of all practical religion : 3 " The end of the commandment is
charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith
unfeigned ;" and he ascribes men's turning aside to vain jang-
ling, to their having swerved from this great principle.
And, to mention no more passages on this head, I shall
conclude this whole account with that amiable description of
the wisdom that is from above, given by St. James : 4 The
wisdom that is from above is pure, and peaceable, and gentle,
and easy to be intreated, full Of good fruits, without partiality,
and without hypocrisy. But if we have bitter envying and
strife in our hearts, we have nothing to glory in, but we lye
against the truth," L e. belie our christian profession ; for
whatever false judgment we may pass upon ourselves, this
« wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,
devilish ; for where envying and strife is, there is confusion
and every evil work."
I have thrown all these excellent passages of the sacred
(I) Phi!, ii. 1, &c, (2) Co!, iii. 3, &c. (3) I Tim. i. 5, &c\ (4) James
iii, 14, &c.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 399
writings together, that it may appear, in the most convincing
light, that the scriptures have nothing in them to countenance
the spirit, or any of the methods of persecution ; and to con-
front the melancholy account I have given before of the pro-
gress and ravages caused by this accursed evil. Good God,
how have the practices of christians differed from the precepts
of Christianity ! Would one imagine that the authors of
those dreadful mischiefs and confusions were the bishops and
ministers of the christian church ? That they had ever read
the records of the christian religion ? Or if they had, that
they ever believed them ?
But it may be objected, that whatever may be the precepts
of the christian religion, yet the conduct even of the apostles
themselves gives some countenance to the spirit and practice of
persecution, and particularly the conduct of St. Paul ; and that
such powers are given to the guides and bishops of the christian
church, as do either expressly or virtually include in them a
right to persecute. Lei us briefly examine each of these
pretensions.
As to the practice of the apostles,1 Beza mentions two in-
stances to vindicate the punishment of heretics. The first is
that of Ananias and Sapphira, struck dead by Peter ; and the
other that of Elymas the sorcerer, struck blind by Paul. But
how impertinently are both these instances alledged ? Heresy
was not the thing punished in either of them. Ananias and
Sapphira were struck dead for hypocrisy and lying ; and for
conspiring, if it were possible, to deceive God. Elymas was
a Jewish sorcerer, and false prophet ; a subtle, mischievous
fellow, an enemy to righteousness and virtue, who withstood
the apostolic authority, and endeavoured, by his frauds, to
prevent the conversion of the deputy to the christian faith.
The two first of these persons were punished with death. By
whom ? What, by Peter ? No : by the immediate hand of
God. Peter gave them a reproof suitable to their wickedness ;
(1) De Hasret. a Magist."*pun. p. 161, &c.
400 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
but as to the punishment, he was only the mouth of God in
declaring it, even of that God who knew the hypocrisy of
their hearts, and gave this signal instance of his abhorrence of
it in the infancy of the christian church, greatly to discourage,
and, if possible, for the future to prevent men thus dealing
fraudulently and insincerely with him. And, I presume, if
God hath aright to punish frauds and cheats in another world,
he hath a right to do so in this ; especially in the instance
before us, which seems to have something very peculiar in it.
Peter expressly says to Sapphira, * " How is it that ye
have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord ? What
can this tempting of the spirit of the Lord be, but an agreement
between Ananias and his wife, to put this fraud on the apostle,
to see whether or no he could discover it by the spirit he pre-
tended to ? This was a proper challenge to the spirit of God,
which the apostles were endued with, and a combination to
put the apostolic character to the trial. Had not the cheat
been discovered, the apostle's inspiration and mission would
have been deservedly questioned ; and as the state of Christi-
anity required that this divine mission should be abundantly
established, Peter lets them know that their hypocrisy was
discovered ; and, to create the greater regard and attention to
their persons and message, God saw fit to punish that hypo-
crisy with death.
As to Elymas the sorcerer, 2 this instance is as foreign and
impertinent as the other. Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cy-
prus, had entertained at Paphos one Barjesus, a jew, a sor-
cerer ; and hearing also that Paul and Barnabas were in the
city, he sent for them to hear the doctrine they preached.
Accordingly they endeavoured to instruct the deputy in the
christian faith, but were withstood by Elymas, who by bis
subtleties and tricks, endeavoured to hinder his conversion.
St. Paul therefore, in order to confirm his own divine mission,
and to prevent the deputy's being deceived by the frauds and
(1) Acts v. 9. (2) Acts xiii. 6, &c.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 401
sorceries of Elymas, after severely rebuking him for his sin,
and opposition to Christianity, tells him, not that the Procon-
sul ought to put him in jail, and punish him with the civil
1 sword, but that God himself would decide the controversy, by
striking the sorcerer himself immediately blind ; which ac-
cordingly came to pass, to the full conviction of the Pro-
consul .
Now what is there in all this to vindicate persecution ?
God punishes wicked men for fraud and sorcery, who knew
their hearts, and had a right to punish the iniquity of them.
Therefore men may punish others for opinions they think to
be true, and are conscientious in embracing, without knowing
the heart, or being capable of discoveringany insincerity in it.
Or God may vindicate the character and mission of his own
messengers, when wickedly opposed and denied, by immediate
judgments inflicted by himself on their opposers. Therefore
the magistrate may punish and put to death, without any
warrant from God, such who believe their mission, and are
ready to submit to it, as far as they understand the nature and
design of it. Are these consequences just and rational? or
would any man have brought these instances as precedents for
persecution, that was not resolved, at all hazards, to defend
and practise it ?
But doth not St. Paul command to * " deliver persons to
satan for the destruction of the flesh?" Doth he not 2 " wish
that they were even cut off who trouble christians, and enjoin
us to mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary
to his doctrine, and to avoid them, and not to eat with them?"
Undoubtedly he doth. But what can be reasonably inferred
from hence in favour of persecution, merely for the sake of opi-
nions and principles ? In all these instances, the things censured
are immoralities and vices. The person who was delivered by
St. Paul to satan, was guilty of a crime not so much as named
by the gentiles themselves, the incestuous marriage of his1
(1) 1 Cor. v. 5. (5) Gal. i. 9. v. 12. Rom. xvi. 17. 1 Cor. y, 9.
402 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
father's wife; and the persons we are, as christians, com-
manded not to keep company and eat with, are men of scan-
dalous lives ; such as fornicators, or covetous, or idolaters, or
railers, or drunkards, or extortioners, making a profession of
the christian religion, or, in St. Paul's phrase, " called bre-
thren ;" a wise and prudent exhortation in those days especi-
ally, to prevent others from being corrupted by such exam-
ples, and any infamy thrown on the christian name and cha-
racter. As to those whom the apostle " wishes cutoff," they
were the persecuting Jews, who spread contention amongst
christians, and taught them to bite and devour one another,
upon account of circumcision, and such like trifles ; men that
were the plagues and corrupters of the society they belonged to.
Men who caused such divisions, and who caused them out of
■a loye.to tbeir own belly, deserved to have a mark set upon
them, and to be avoided by all who regarded their own inte-
rest, or the peace of others.
What the apostle means by delivering to satan, I am not
able certainly to determine. It was not, I am sure, the put-
ting the person in jail, or torturing his body by an executioner,
nor sending him to the devil by the sword or the faggot. One
thing included in it, undoubtedly was his separation from the
christian church ; * u put away from amongst yourselves that
wicked person :" which probably was attended with some
bodily distemper, which, as it came from God, had a tendency
to bring the person to consideration and reflection. The im-
mediate design of it was the destruction of the flesh, to cure
him of his incest, that, by repentance and reformation, his
" spirit might be saved in the day of Christ ;" and the power
by which the apostle inflicted this punishment, was peculiar to
himself, which God gave him - u for edification, and not for
destruction :." So that whatever is precisely meant by deliver-
ing to satan, it was the punishment of a notorious sin : a pu-
nishment that carried the marks of God's hand, and was dc-
(I) i Cor v. 13. (2) 2 Cor. x. 8.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 403
signed for the person's good, and was actually instrumental to
recover and save him. 2 Cor. ii.
But what resemblance is there in all this to persecution, in
which there is no appearance of the hand of God, nor any
marks but those of the cruelty and vengeance of men ; no im-
morality punished, and generally speaking, nothing that in its
nature deserves punishment, or but what deserves encourage-
ment and applause. And it is very probable that this is what
St. Paul means by his " wishing those cut off" who disturbed
the peace of the Galatian christians, by spreading divisions
amongst them, and exciting persecutions against them ; though
I confess, if St. Paul meant more, and prayed to God that those
obstinate and incorrigible enemies to Christianity, who, for
private views of worldly interest, raised perpetual disturbances
and persecutions wherever they came, might receive the just
punishment of their sins, and be hereby prevented from doing
farther mischief, I do not see how this would have been incon-
sistent with charity, or his own character as an inspired apostle.
It may possibly be urged, that though the things censured
in these places are immoralities, yet that there are other pas-
sages which refer only to principles ; and that the apostle Paul
speaks against them with great severity : as particularly, * "If
any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed." And again, 2 UA man that
is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject."
As to the first of these, nothing can be more evident, than that
the apostle pronounces an anathema only against those who sub-
verted the christian religion ; such who taught that it was in-
sufficient to salvation, without circumcision, and submission to
the Jewish law. As the gospel he taught was what he had re-
ceived from Christ, he had, as an apostle, a right to warn the
churches he wrote to against corrupting the simplicity of it :
and to pronounce an anathema, i. e. to declare in the name
of his great Master, that all such false teachers should be con-
(1) Gal. i. 9. (2) Tit. iii. 10.
3f8
404 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
demned who continued to do so : And this is the utmost that
can be made of the expression ; and therefore this place is as
impertinently alledged in favour of persecution, as it would be
to alledge those words of Christ, " He that belie veth not shall
be condemned." The anathema pronounced was the divine
vengeance ; it was Anathema Maranatha, to take place only
when the Lord should come to judgment, and not to be exe-
cuted by human vengeance.
As to heresy, against which such dreadful outcries have
been raised, it is taken indifferently in a good or a bad sense in
the scrip! ure. In the bad sense, it signifies, not an involuntary
error, or mistake of judgment, into which serious and honest
minds may fall, after a careful inquiry into the will of God;
but a wilful, criminal, corruption of the truth for worldly ends
and purposes. Thus it is reckoned by * St. Paul himself
amongst the works of the flesh, such as adultery, fornication,
variance, strifes, and the like ; because heresy is embraced for
the sake of fleshly lusts, and always ministers to the serving
them. Thus St. Peter: 2 " There were false prophets also
amongst the people, even as there shall be false teachers
amongst you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction ; and many shall follow their per-
nicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil
spoken of; and through covetousness shall they, with feigned
words, make merchandize of you ; whom he farther describes
as walking after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness," and as
given to almost all manner of vices. This is heresy, and
" denying the Lord that bought us," and the only meaning
of the expression, as used by the apostle; though it hath been
applied by weak or designing men to denote all such as do not
believe their metaphysical notion of the Trinity, or the Atha-
nasian creed. Hence it is that St. Paul gives it, as the gene-
ral character of an heretic, that 3 " he is subverted," viz.
(I) Gal. v. 20 (2) 2 Pet. ii. 1, &c, v. 10. (3) Tit. in. U,
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 405
from the christian faith ; " sinneth," viz. by voluntarily em-
bracing errors, subversive of the gospel, in favour of his lusts,
on which account he is u self- condemned," viz. by his own
conscience, both in the principles he teaches, and the vile uses
to which he* makes them serve. So that though sincere and
honest inquirers after truth, persons who fear God, and, prac-
tise righteousness, may be heretics in the esteem of men, for
not understanding and believing their peculiarities in religion;
yet they are not and cannot be heretics, according to the
scripture description of heresy, in the notion of which there is
always supposed a wicked heart, causing men wilfully to em-
brace and propagate such principles as are subversive of the
gospel, in order to serve the purposes of their avarice, ambi-
tion, and lust.
Such heresy as this is unquestionably one of the worst of
crimes, and heretics of this kind are worthy to be rejected.
It must be confessed, that heresy hath been generally taken in
another sense, and to mean opinions that differ from the esta-
blished orthodoxy, or from the creeds of the clergy, that are
uppermost in power ; who have not only taken on them to
reject such as have differed from them, from their communion
and church, but to deprive them of fortune, liberty, and life.
But as St. Paul's notion of heresy entirely differs from what
the clergy have generally taught about it, theirs may be al-
lowed to be a very irrational and absurd doctrine, and the
apostle's remain a very wise and good one ; and though they
have gone into all the lengths of wickedness to punish what
they have stigmatized with the name of heresy, they have had
no apostolic example or precept to countenance them ; scrip-
ture heretics being only to be rejected from the church, ac-
cording to St. Paul ; and, as to any farther punishment, it is
deferred till the Lord shall come.
As to the powers given to the guides, or overseers, or bishops
-of the church, I allow their claims have been exceeding
great. They have assumed to themselves the name of the
church and clergy, hereby to distinguish themselves from the
flock of Christ. They have taken on them, as we have seen,
406 THE -HISTORY OF PERSECUTION,
to determine, mend, and alter the faith ; to make creeds for
others, and oblige them to subscribe them ; and to act as though
our Saviour had divested himself of his own rights, and given
unto them " all power in heaven and earth." Bat these
claims have as little foundation in the gospel as in reason.
The words clergy and church, are never once used in
scripture to denote the bishops, or other officers, but the chris-
tian people. St. Peter advises the presbyterers * " to feed the
flock of God, and to exercise the episcopal office willingly,
not as lording it over the heritages," or clergy of God. And
St. Paul, writing to his Ephesians, and speaking of their pri-
vileges as christians, says, that u by Christ they were made
God's peculiar lot," or heritage, or clergy. In like manner
the body of christians in general, and particular congregations
in particular places, are called the church, but the ministers of
the gospel never in contra-distinction to them. It is of all be-
lievers that St. Peter gives that noble description, that they are
" a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sa-
crifices ; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy na-
tion, and a peculiar people," or a people for his peculiar her-
itage, or " purchased possession," as the word is. rendered.
Eph. i. 14. So that to be the church, the clergy, and the
sacred priests of God, is an honour common to all christians
in general by the gospel charter. These are not the titles of a
few only, who love to exalt themselves above others.
Undoubtedly, the order of the christian worship requires
that there should be proper persons to guide and regulate the
affairs of it. And accordingly St. Paul tells us, 2 " that
Christ gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,
and some pastors and teachers;" different officers, according
to the different state and condition of his church. To the
apostles extraordinary powers were given, to fit them for the
service to which they were called ; and, to enable them to
manage these powers in a right manner, they were under the
(1) 1 Pet- v. 3, (2) Eph. iv, 11.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 407
peculiar conduct of the spirit of God, Thus our Saviour,
after his resurrection, breathed on his disciples the Holy Ghost,
and said, * " Whose soever sins ye remit, they are re-
mitted to them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re-
tained ;" a commission of the same import with that which he
gave them before, Matt, xviii. 18. u Whatsoever ye shall
bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye
shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." To u bind, is
to retain men's sins; and to loose, is to remit their sins." And
this power the apostles had ; and it was absolutely necessary
they should have it, or they could never have spread his
religion in the world.
But wherein did this binding and loosing, this retaining
and remitting sins, consist ? What, in their saying to this mail,
I absolve you from your sins ; and, to the other, I put you
under the sentence of damnation ? would any considerate man
in the world have ever credited their pretensions to such an ex-
travagant power ? or can one single instance be produced of
the apostles pretending to exercise it? No: their power of
binding and loosing, of retaining and remitting sins, consisted
in this, and in this principally, viz. their fixing the great con-
ditions of men's future salvation, and denouncing the wrath of
Almighty God against all, who, through wilful obstinacy,
would not believe and obey the gospel. And the commission
was given them in the most general terms, " whose soever sins
ye retain, &c." not because they were to go to particular per-
sons, and peremtorily say, " you shall be saved, and you shall
be damned ;" bnt because they were to preach the gospel to
gentiles as well as jews, and to fix those conditions of future
happiness and misery that should include all the nations of the
earth, to whom the gospel should be preached.
This was their proper office and work, as apostles; and,
in order to this, they had the spirit given them, to bring all
things that Christ had said to their remembrance, and to in-
(J) Johu xs. 23.
408 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
struct tliem fully iii the nature and doctrines of the gospel.
And as they have declared the whole counsel of God to the
world, they have loosed and bound all mankind, u even the
very bishops and pastors of the church, as well as others," as
they have fixed those conditions of pardon and mercy, of fu-
ture happiness and misery for all men, from which God will
not recede, to the end of time. This was a power fit to be en-
trusted with men under the conduct of an unerring spirit, and
with them only ; whereas the common notion of sacerdotal or
priestly absolution, as it hath no foundation in this commission
to the apostles, nor in any passage of the sacred writings, is
irrational and absurd, and which the priests have no more power
to give, than any other common christian whatsoever ; no, nor
than they have to make a new gospel.
I would add, that as the apostles received this commission
from Christ, they were bound to confine themselves wholly to it
and not to exceed the limits of it. They were his servants who
sent them ; and the message they received from him, that, and
that only, were they to deliver to the world. Thus St. Paul
says of himself, that * " God had committed to him the world
of reconciliation," and that he was a an ambassador for Christ ;"
that he 2 " preached not himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord,
and himself the servant of others for Jesus' sake ;" that he had
3 " no dominion over others faith," no power to impose upon
them arbitrary things, or articles of faith, which he had not
received from Christ; and that accordingly he 4 u determined
to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified, i. e. to preach
nothing but the pure and uncorrupted doctrines of his gospel ;
and that this was his great comfort, that he had " not shunned
to declare the counsel of God."
If then the inspired apostles were to confine themselves to
what they received from God, and had no power to make ar-
ticles of faith, and fix terms of communion and salvation 4 other
than what they were immediately ordered to do by Christ, it
(1) 2 Cor. v. 20. (2) iv. 5. (3.) i. 24. (4) 1 Cor. ii. 2.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 409
is absolutely impossible tbat the clergy can have that power
now; who have, as I apprehend, no immediate commission
from Christ, nor any direct inspiration from his Holy Spirit.
Nor is there any thing in the circumstances of the world to
lender such a power desirable ; because the apostles have
shewn us all things that we need believe or practise as christi-
ans, and commanded the preachers of the gospel to teach no
other doctrines but what they received from them. Hence St.
Peter's advice to the elders, that they, * " should feed the
flock of God, not as lording it over the heritage." And St.
Paul, in his epistles to Timothy, instructing him in the nature
of the gospel doctrines and duties, tells him, that 2 " by put-
ting the brethren in remembrance of these things, he would
approve himself a good minister of Jesus Christ;" and com-
mands him to 3 " take heed to himself, and to the doctrines"
he had taught him, u and to continue in them ;" charging
him, 4 " in the sight of God, and before Christ Jesus, to keep
the commandment given him, that which was committed to
his trust, without spot, unrebukeable, till the appearance of
Christ Jesus." These were the things to which Timothy was
to confine himself, and to commit to others, that they might,
be continually preached in the christian church ; and, of con-
sequence, it is the same apostolic doctrine that the bishops, or
elders, or ministers of the church, are to instruct their hearers
in now, as far as they understand it, without mixing any thing
of their own with it, or of any other persons whatsoever.
The great end and design of the ministerial office, is for the
5 " perfecting of the saints, and the edifying of the body of
Christ." Hence the elders are commanded " to take heed to
themselves, and to the flock, over which the Holy Ghost had
made them bishops, to feed the church of God." They are
likewise exhorted to " hold fast the faithful word, as they had
been taught, that by sound doctrine they may be able to exhort
(1) 1 Pet. v. 3. (2) 1 Tim. iv. 6. (3) vi. 13, 14, 20. (4) 2 J\™
ii. 2. (5.) Act* xx. 28.
3€r
410 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
and convince others." They are to " give attendance to
reading, exhortation, and doctrine," and to put others in re-
membrance of the great truths of the gospel; charging them,
before the Lord, not to strive about unprofitable words, but to
u be gentle to all men," and " in meekness to instruct even?
those who oppose." They are to u contend earnestly for the
faith," as well as other christians, but then it is for " that
faith which was once delivered to the saints ," and, even for
this, * " the servant of the Lord is not to fight." He is not
to use carnal but spiritual weapons ; nor to put on any armour
but that of righteousness on the right hand, and on the left.
They are to 2 w speak the truth," but it must be 3U in love."
They should be " zealously affected," but it should be always
" in a good thing." They must " stop the mouths of unruly
and vain talkers," but it must be by " uncorruplness of doc-
trine, gravity, sincerity, and sound speech, that cannot be con-
demned."
Upon these, and the like accounts, they are said to be " over
us in the Lord, " to rule us," and to be " our guides ;" words
that do not imply any dominion that they have over the con-
sciences of others, nor any right in them to prescribe articles of
faith and terms of communion for others. This they are ex-
pressly forbidden, and commanded to preach the word of God
only, and pronounced accursed if they preach any other gospel
than that which they have received from the apostles. And,
of consequence, when we are bid " to obey" and " submit
ourselves" to them, it is meant then, and then only, when they
u rule us in the Lord ;" when they speak to us the word of
God^ and ■" labour in the word and doctrine." In all oilier
cases, they have no power, nor is there any obedience due to
them. They are to be respected, and to " be had in double
honour for their work sake, i. e. when they " preach not them-
selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord ," and when their faith and
conversation is such, as to become worthy our imitation. ' But
(1) 2 Tim. ii. 24. (2) Eph. iy. 15. (3) Tit. i. II. ii. 8.
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION. 411
if " they teach otherwise, arid consent not to the words of our
Lord Jesus ; if they doat about words whereof come envy, strife,
and railing, supposing that gain is godliness, from such we
are commanded to withdraw ourselves. " The episcopal cha-
racter, however otherwise greatly venerable, then forfeits the
reverence due to it, and becomes contemptible.
So that there are no powers or privileges annexed to the
episcopal or ministerial character, in the sacred writings, that
are in the least favourable to the cause of persecution, or that
countenance so vile and detestable a practice. As to the
affair of excommunication, by which the clergy have set the
world so often in a flame, there is nothing in the sacred records
that confines the right of exercising it to them, nor any com-
mand ever to exercise it, but towards notorious and scandalous
offenders. The incestuous Corinthian was delivered over to
satan by the church in full assembly, on which account his
punishmeut or censure is said to be * " by many." And
though St. Paul bids Titus to " reject an heretic," he also bids
the Corinthians to 2 " put away that wicked person from
amongst them," which had brought such a scandal upon their
church ; and the " Thessalonians, to withdraw themselves
from every brother that should walk disorderly." So that as the
clergy have no right, from the new testament, to determine in
controversies of faith, nor to create any new species of heresy,
so neither have they any exclusive right to cut off any persons
from the body of the church, much less to cut them off from
it for not submitting to their creeds and canons ; and, of con-
sequence, no power to mark them out by this act to the civil
magistrate, as objects of his indignation and vengeance.
I have been the longer on this head, that I might fully vin-
dicate the christian revelation from every suspicion of being
favourable to persecution. Notwithstanding some late insinu-
ations of this kind that have been thrown out against it, by its
professed adversaries, let but the expressions of scripture be in-
(1) 1 Cor. v. 4. (2) 2 Cor. ii. 6.
3& 2
412 THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION.
terpretcd with the same candour as any other writings are, and
there will not be found a single sentence to countenance this doc-
trine and practice. And therefore thougli men of corrupt minds,
or weak judgments, have, for the sake of worldly advantages,
or through strong prejudices, entered into the measures of per-
secution under pretence of vindicating the christian religion ;
yet, as they have no support and foundation in the gospel of
Christ, the gospel ought not to be reproached for this, or any
other faults of those who profess to believe it. Let persecution
be represented as a most detestable and impious practice, and
let persecutors of every denomination and degree bear all the
reproaches they deserve, and be esteemed, as they ought to be,
the disturbers, plagues, and curses of mankind, and the church
of God ; but let not the religion of Jesus Christ suffer for their
crimes, nor share any part of that scandal, which is due only to
those who have dishonoured their character and profession,
and abused the most beneficent and kind institution that ever
appeared in the world.
It is in order to expose this shameful practice, and render
it the abhorrence of all mankind, that I have drawn up the
foregoing sheets ; and, I presume, that no one who hath not
put off humanity itself, can read them without becoming senti-
ments of indignation. The true use to be made of that history,
is, not to think dishonourably- of Christ and his religion ; not
to contemn and despise his faithful ministers, who, by preach-
ing and practice, by reason and argument, endeavour to pro-
pagate knowledge, piety, righteousness, charity, and all the
virtues of private and social life. The blessing of the Almighty
God be with them. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ suc-
ceed and prosper them. I say therefore, the use of the fore-
going history is to teach men to adhere closely to the doctrines
and words of Christ and his apostles, to argue for the doctrines
of the gospel with meekness and charity, to introduce no new
terms of salvation and christian communion; not to trouble
the christian church with metaphysical subtleties and abstruse
questions, that minister to quarrelling and strife ; not to pro-
nounce censures, judgments, and anathemas, upon such as may
THE HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, 413
differ from us in speculative truths ; not to exclude men from
the rights of civil society, nor lay them under any negative or
positive discouragements for consc'ence-sakc, or for their dif-
ferent usages and rites in the externals of christian worship ;
but to remove those which are already laid, and which are as
much a scandal to the authors and continuers of them, as they
are a burden to those who labour under them. These were the
sole views that influenced me to lay before my reader the fore-
going melancholy account ; not any design to reflect on the
clergy in •general, whose office and character I greatly rever-
ence ; and who, by acting according to the original design of
their institution, would prove the most useful set of men in
every nation and kingdom, and thereby secure to themselves
all the esteem they couk! reasonably desire in the present world ;
and, what is infinitely more valuable, the approbation of their
great Lord and Master in another.
JJtnfo
The following Appendix by the Editor ', contains
hints on the recent persecutions in this country;
a brief statement of the circumstances relating to
Lord Sidmouth^s Bill; a circumstantial detail
of the steps taken to obtain the new Toleration
Act^ with the Act itself and other important
matter.
m
APPENDIX, by the EDITOR.
feiNCE the accession of King William and Queen Mary, to
the throne of Great Britain, and the Act of Toleration, made
in the first year of their reign, a degree of religious liberty, un-
known to former ages, has been enjoyed by the inhabitants of
this highly-favoured country.
In the latter part of the reign of Queen Anne, the religious
privileges of Protestant Dissenters were threatened, but by the
happy accession of the illustrious house of Brunswick to the
throne, their fears were soon dissipated, and their privileges
secured. -
In the commencement of the late revival of pure and un-
defiled religion, in this land, about the year 1739, lawless mobs
arose, in different parts of the kingdom, and grievously mal-
treated and persecuted the Rev. John Wesley, the founder of
Methodism, the Rev. George Whitefield, and others. But as
my limits will not permit me to enlarge on the persecu-
tions which these illustrious men endured for a season, I must
beg leave to refer the reader, who wishes for further informa-
416
APPENDIX.
tion on the subject, io " Mr. Wesley's Journals," the " Case
or Journal, of John Nelson," one of the first Methodist preach-
ers, and to a pamphlet entitled, " Modern Christianity exem-
plified, at Wednesbury, and other adjacent places in Staf-
fordshire."*
I might here also record the persecutions endured by Robert
CarrBrackcnbury, Esq. and Mr. (now Dr.) Adam Clarke, in the
Norman Isles, about the year 1786; * of Mr. Matthew, Lumb,
in the island of St. Vincent ;2 Mr. John Brownell, in tlie island
of Nevis, and of Mr. Daniel Campbell, and others, in the island
of Jamaica, in the West Indies ; 3 also, the recent persecutions
at Wye, in Kent;4 at Pershore, in Worcestershire;5 atChildrey,
near Wantage, in Berkshire ; 6' at Wickham Market,7 in Suf-
folk, and at Drayton, in Shropshire.8 These, with others that
might be adduced, were they particularized, would fill a vo-
lume; but I forbear : I wish for the honour of my country, and
of the nineteenth century, to cast a veil over them, and to bury
them in everlasting oblivion.
His late Majesty King George the Second, was a firm friend
to religious toleration, and was often heard to say, " no man
should be persecuted for conscience sake in his dominions."
His present Majesty King George the Third, has walked in the
steps of his royal grandfather. He declared in his first speech
from the throne, " that it was his invariable resolution to pre-
serve the Toleration inviolate;5' a declaration, lam happy to
say, which he has religiously fulfilled, through a long and be-
neficent reign .
When any Disturbances, or persecutions, have arisen in
any of the British colonies, or extreme parts of the empire, his
Majesty lias invariably asserted his royal prerogative in redres-
publicati&ns may be had at No. 14, City Road, London
Life bv Coke, &c. pase \ (5) Meth. Masr. vol. 35, 396.
* These
(1) Wesley's Life by Coke, &c. page
429.
(2) Meth. Mag. vol. 16, page 441.
(3) Ibid vol. 27, page 95.
(4) Evan. Mag. for May, 1811.
(5) Meth. Mag. vol. 35, 396.
(6) Evan, Mag. for March, 181
(7) Ibid Ibid.
(8) Ibid Nov. 1811.
APPENDIX. 417
sing the grievances of his subjects ; and lias always peremto-
rtly refused to recognise any colonial law, which infringed on
religious liberty. This will appear from the following au-
thentic documents. In the island of St. Vincent, in the year
1792, the Legislature passed an act " that no person, (the regu-
lar clergy excepted) should preach without a licence from them,
and that this licence should not be granted to any who had not
previously resided for twelve months on the island . ' ' For the first
offence the punishment was to pay a fine of ten Iohannes, or im-
prisonment, for at least, thirty days. For the second, such
corporal punishment as the court should think proper to inflict,
and banishment ; and lastly, on return from banishment, death ! !
were the edicts of the Heathen Emperors more cruel or severe
than this ! But in the month of October, 1793, his Majesty, in
council, was graciously pleased to disannul the act of the Assem-
bly, of St. Vincent, and thus restored liberty of conscience to
his persecuted subjects.
An act having passed the House of Assembly, in the island
of Jamaica, in December 1802, u prohibiting preaching by per-
sons not duly qualified by law ;" after the passing of which,
act, one minister, though duly qualified at home, by the Act
of Toleration, was, for preaching at MorantBay, cast into pri-
son ! This occurred in May 1803, but his Majesty in council,
disallowed of that act also, and on the 12th of December, 1804,
the following messuage appeared in the Royal Gazette, Kings-
town, Jamaica : —
House of Assembly ', December 12, 1804.
A Messuage from his Honour, the Lieut. -Governor, by
his Secretary, as follows :
" Mr. Speaker,— I am directed by the Lieut. -Governor,
to lay before the House, an extract of a letter fr om Earl Cam-
den, dated Downing-Street, 7th of June, 1 804, tog-ether with
the draught of a bill, which his Honor has been instructed to
be proposed to the house to be passed into a law."
Extract of a letter from the Rt. Hon. Earl Camden, to Lieut,
General Nugent,, dated Downing-Street, June 7, 1804,—
Sh
418 APPENDIX.
"Sir, — I herewith transmit to you an order of his Ma*
jesty in council, dated April 23d last, disallowing an act passed
by the Legislature of the Island of Jamaica, in December
1802," entitled, " An act to prvent preaching by persons not
duly qualified by Law ;" and a further order of his Majesty
in council of the same date, to which is annexed, the draught
of a bill upon the same subject, which, in compliance with the
direction contained in the said order, I am desired you will take
an early opportunity of proposing to the Assembly to be passed
into a law."
" Ordered, that the above message and the papers sent down
therewith, do lie on the table, for the perusal of the members."
In December 1807, the Legislative Assembly of the island
of Jamaica, passed another law, of a similar nature to the above ;
but his Majesty in council, on the 26th of April, 1809, was
graciously pleased to disallow that law also ; thereby fully
evincing to the world, his fixed determination to prevent per-
secution in every part of his dominions, and to shew himself a
u nursing father" to the church and people of God. Notwith-
standing, however, his Majesty's most gracious interference in
the above instances, such is the persecuting spirit of the go-
vernment of Jamaica, that they have recently passed an
Act plainly intended to prevent, if possible, the instruction
of the Negroes, by those who alone will take the pains to be-
stow it.
This Act was passed November 14th, 1810, entitled, " An act
to prevent preaching and teaching by persons not duly qualified,
and to restrain meetings of a dangerous nature, on pretence of
attending such preaching and teaching." But as his Royal
Highness the Prince Regent, is treading in the steps of his Royal
Father, and manifesting the same regard for the religious liber-
ties of the people in this vast empire, we feel confident this
persecuting law will meet with the same fate as the former, and
will never receive the royal sanction.
We are emboldened to expect this from the recent conduct
of his Royal Highness, in the case of Demerary, where a Pro-
clamation had Veen issued subversive of religious liberty, under
APPHEDIX. 419
the administration of Governor Bentinck, but which his Royal
Highness was graciously pleased to discountenance.
The following Proclamation was issued by Major-General
Carmichael, who succeeded Governor Bentinck in the govern-
ment of Demarary, and is copied from the Essequibo and De-
marary Royal Gazette, of Tuesday March 7, 1812.
c Whereas, I have received instructions from his Royal
Highness the Prince Regent, to recall the Proclamation issued
on the 25th of May, 1811, and to give every aid to Mission-
aries in the instruction of religion, the Proclamation of the
above date is hereby recalled ; and the following regulations
will take place from this date : —
' First, — It is to be understood, that no limitation or restraint
can be enforced upon the right of instruction, on particular
estates, provided the meetings for this purpose take place upon
the estate, and with the consent and approbation of the proprie-
tor and overseer of the estate.
' Secondly, — As it has been represented, that on Sundays
inconvenience might arise from confining the hours of meeting
in chapels, or places of general resort, between sun-rise and
sun-set, the hours of assembling on that day shall be between
five in the morning and nine at night. And on the other days
the slaves shall be allowed to assemble for the purpose of in-
struction, or divine worship, between the hours of seven and
nine at night, on any neighbouring estate to that to which
they belong ; provided that such assembly takes place with the
permission of the overseer, attorney, or manager of the slaves,
and of the overseer, attorney, or manager of the estate on which
such assembly takes place.
c Thirdly, — All chapels and places destined for divine wor-
ship, or public resort, shall be registered in the colonial Secre-
tary's office ; and the names of persons officiating in them shall
be made known to the Governor ; and the doors of the places shall
remain open during the time of public worship or instruction.
c Given under my Hand and Seal-at-Arms, at the Camp-
House, this 7th Day of April, 1812, ar 1 in the 52d Year of
His Majesty's Reign. II L. Carmichael.
Sh 2
420 APPENDIX,
In the year 1789, some of the preachers and people con-
nected with the Rev. John Wesley, were harrassed by some
Justices of the peace on a pretence entirely new. They were
told, " You profess yourselves members of the Church of
England, therefore your licences are good for nothing ; nor
can you, as members of the church, receive any benefit from
the Act of Toleration." Mr. Wesley saw, that if the -pro-
ceedings on this subtle distinction were extended over the na-
tion, the Methodists must either profess themselves dissenters,
or suffer infinite trouble. He certainly did not wish his so-
cieties to alter their relative situation to the national church
without absolute necessity; and yet he wished them to be re-
lieved from this embarrasment. He therefore stated the case
to a member of parliament, (1 believe to Mr. Wilberforce,) a
real friend to liberty of conscience ; hoping that the Legisla-
ture might be prevailed upon to interpose, and free the Metho-
dists from the penalties of the Conventicle 'Act.
The following is an extract from Mr. Wesley's letter : —
" Dear Sir, — Last month a few poor people met toge-
ther in Somersetshire, to pray, and to praise God, in a friend's
house : there was no preaching at all. Two neighbouring
Justices fined the man of the house twenty pounds. I suppose
he was not worth twenty shillings. — Upon this, his household
goods were distrained and sold to pay the fine. He appealed
to the Quarter Sessions : but all the Justices averred, ' The
Methodists could have no relief from the Act of Toleration,
because they went to Church ; and that, so long as they did
so, the Conventicle Act should be executed upon them.
w Last Sunday, when one of our Preachers was beginning
to speak to a quiet congregation, a neighbouring Justice sent a
Constable to seize him, though he was licenced ; and would
not release him till he had paid twenty pounds — telling him,
his licence was good for nothing, i because he was a Church-
man.'
" Now Sir, what can the Methodists do ? They are liable
to be ruined by the Conventicle Act, and they have no relief
from the Act of Toleration ! If this is not oppression, what is ?
APPENDIX. 421
Where then is English liberty ? The liberty of christians, yea
of every rational creature ? who as such, has a right to worship
God according to his own conscience. But waving the question
of right and wrong, what prudence is there in oppressing such
a body of loyal subjects ? If these good Magistrates could drive
them, not only out of SomersetshirCj but out of England, who
would be gainers thereby ? Not his Majesty, whom we honour
and love : not his Ministers, whom we love and serve foi uts
sake. Do they wish to throw away so many thousand friends ?
who are now bound to them by stronger ties than that of in-
terest.—If you will speak a word to Mr. Pitt on that head, you
will oblige, &c."
Mr. Wesley also addressed the following letter to the Bishop
of , on the same subject : —
" My Lord, — I am a dying man, having already one foot in
the grave. Humanly speaking, I cannot long creep upon the
earth, being now nearer ninety than eighty years of age. But
I cannot die in peace, before I have discharged this office of
christian love to your Lordship. I write without ceremony,
as neither hoping nor fearing any thing from your Lordship,
or any man living. And I ask, in the name and in the presence
of iiim, to whom both you and I are shortly to give an account,
why do you trouble those that are quiet in the land ? Those
that fear God and work righteousness ? Does your Lordship
know what the Methodists are? That many thousands of them
are zealous members of the church of England ? and strongly-
attached, not only to his Majesty, but to his present Ministry ?
Why should your Lordship, setting religion out of the ques-
tion, throw away such a body of respectable frienils ? Is it for
their religious sentiments ? Alas my Lord, is this a time to per-
secute any man for conscience-sake ? I beseech you, my Lord,
do as you would be done to. You are a man of sense : you
are a man of learning: nay, I verily believe (what is of infi-
nitely more value) you are a man of piety. Then think, and
let think — I pray God to bless you with the choicest of his
blessings.
B-
I am, my Lord, &c."
422
APPENDIX.
To another Bishop, who, I suppose, had forbidden his
Clergy to let Mr. Wesley preach in their Churches, he wrote
in his own laconic way as follows :
" My Lord,— Several years ago, the church-wardens of
St. Bartholomew's informed Dr. Gibson, then Lord Bishop of
London, i My Lord, Mr. Batemen, our rector, invites Mr.
Wesley very frequently to preach in his Church .' The Bishop
replied, 6 And what would you have me do ? I have no right
to hinder him. Mr. Wesley is a clergyman regularly ordain-
ed, and under no ecclesiastical censure.'
I am, my Lord,
Your Lordship's obedient Servant,
John Wesley."
Though the horrible and persecuting laws, known by the
names of the Conventicle and Five Mile Acts, had never been
repealed, yet, for upwards of a century, they lay nearly dor-
mant, and were generally considered as virtually dead. But,
I am sorry to have it to record, that those Acts have been re-
cently roused from their long slumber, to life and action.
In the spring of the year 1811, a bill was introduced into
the House of Lords, (which had long been in contemplation)
by the Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Sklmouth, the object of which
was said to be the " amending and explaining the Toleration
Acts, as far as they applied to Protestant Dissenting Ministers ;"
but which in fact, had it passed into a law, would have been
a violalion of the laws of religious liberty, and subversive of the
most valuable rights and privileges of the Methodists and Dis-
senters.
I give the Right Hon. mover of this bill full credit for the
purity of its motives, nor do I think he was at all aware that
it would eventually operate against the people whom he pro-
fessed to serve ; however, much real good to the cause of reli-
gious toleration, whether intended or not, has ultimately en-
sued from the introduction of this bill into the House of Lords.
It excited considerable interest in the nation at large, especially
among the dissenters of all denominations. Committees were
APPENDIX. 423
formed, and various meetings were held by them, and also by the
<s Committee of Privileges" belonging to the societies founded
by the late Rev. John Wesley ; a detail of which I shall here
beg leave to lay before the reader, by inserting an extract from
a narrative of their proceedings respecting Lord Sidmouth's
bill, and the speeches delivered by several noble Lords when
the second reading of that bill was moved.
u Lord Viscount Sidmouth, it is well known, had long had
the present measure in contemplation, and as a foundation for
the proceeding, he had made several motions in the House of
Lords within the last two or three years, which had for their
object the procuring of information relative to the number of
licenced teachers, and places of worship, and the state of the
Established Church. Returns of the Archbishops and Bishops
on these subjects having been laid before the House of Lords ;
on the 9th of May, 1811, his Lordship rose to call the atten-
tion of the House to certain abuses of the act of William and
Mary, and that of the 19th of the present reign, and to move
for leave to bring in a bill for amending and explaining the
same, as far as they applied to Protestant Dissenting Ministers.
< c After what he had to say, their Lordships would see whether
the correction of these abuses should not be a matter of anxious
solicitude to all persons of all persuasions, and to every one
who felt what was due to the dignity, the honour, and the
sanctity of religion itself. It was to be regretted, that, up to
the period of the Revolution, the history of religion was, in this
country, a history of intolerance and persecution. Whatever
party was uppermost, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Puritan,
the same want of Toleration for diversity of opinion was dis-
played. The Revolution was the aera of religious liberty in
this country, and William III. accomplished that which would
eyer remain a monument of his wisdom : he meant the Toler-
ation Act. That act, while it removed the penalties to which
Dissenters were subject, declared that all the Ministers in holy
orders, or pretended holy orders, upon subscribing twenty-six
of the thirty-nine articles, upon taking the oaths, and signing
a declaration, may officiate in any chapel or meeting-house.
424 ' APPENDIX.
By an act of the nineteenth of the King, their signing any of
the thirty-nine articles was dispensed with, and they were
only to express their belief in the Holy Scriptures. Within
the last thirty or forty years, these acts had received a
novel interpretation. At most of the Quarter-Sessions, where
the oaths were taken and the declaration made, it was now un-
derstood, that any person whatever, however ignorant or pro-
fligate, whether he descended from the chimney or the pillory,
was at liberty to put in his claim to take the oaths before the
Justices, to make the declaration, and also at liberty to demand
a certificate which authorised him to preach any doctrine he
pleased ; which exempted hirn besides from serving in the mi-
litia, and from many civil burdens to which his fellow-subjects
were liable.
" Now, if religion be the best foundation of all the vir-
tues, was it not a matter of the last importance that it should
not be tainted at its very source, and that men who did not
choose to follow the regular pursuits of honest industry, should
not have it in their power to poison the minds of the people by
their fanaticism and folly? He would appeal to any man who had
officiated at the Quarter Sessions, whether he had not seen men
totally illiterate, without education, without one qualification
of fitness, demanding to take the oaths, and obtaining a li-
cence to preach ? He did not wish to state particular instances
of gross deficiency as to intellectual qualification, and of gross
abuses in other respects, which it was in his power to do. He
did not mean to lay much stress on illiteracy ; but it was the
self-assumption of the office, without bringing any testimony of
fitness, to which he particularly meant to object, as inconsistent
with the Act of Toleration.
" He had seen the returns of Dissenting Preachers from two
Archdeaconries ; and many of them, he must say, ought not to
have been allowed to constitute themselves the ministers of reli-
gion. Amongst the list there were men who had been black-
smiths, coblers, tailors, pedlars, chimney-sweepers, and what
not. These men were totally out of their place : they were not,
in fact, at liberty, by law, to take upon themselves the func-
APPENDIX. 425
tions of teachers. There were counties in this kingdom where
a different interpretation was put on the Toleration Act. In the
comity of Devon, and in Buckinghamshire, the Magistrates ad-
mitted no person to qualify, unless he shewed that he was in
holy orders, or pretended holy orders, and the preacher and
teacher of a congregation. This he conceived to be according
to the real meaning of the Toleration Act ; and it was in this
way that the Bill he proposed to introduce would explain that
Act. He should propose, that., in order to entitle any man to
obtain a qualification as a Preacher, he should have the recom-
mendation of at least six reputable householders of the congre-
gation to which he belonged, and that he should actually have
a congregation that was willing to listen to his instructions.
With regard to preachers who were not stationary, but itinerant,
he proposed that they should be required to bring a testimonial
from six householders, stating them to be of sober life and cha-
racter, together with their belief, that they were qualified to
perform the functions of preachers.
" The noble Lord then noticed the great increase of dissent-
ing preachers of late years. Those who would be affected by
his Bill did not belong to any sect of dissenters ; they were of
the worst class of the Independants, and distinguished by their
fanaticism and a certain mischievous volubility of tongue. In
the first fourteen years of the present reign, the average annual
increase of dissenting teachers was limited to eight, but now it
amounted to twenty-four. The causes of this increase, he con-
sidered to be partly the increase of population, and the greater
prevalence of religious feelings among the people ; but there
were other and powerful causes, in the numerous pluralities and
non-residence of the clergy. Another great cause was the want
of' churches to accommodate a numerous population, and,
therefore, his Lordship seriously called the attention of the
House to consider how this deficiency could be remedied, and
ecommended the example of parliament in the reign of Queen
Anne, who had ordered the erection of fifty -two new churches
in London. He. regarded the Church of England as the great
preservative of the principles and the morals of the people.
Si
426 APPENDIX,
Unfortunately, at present, we were in danger of having an
established church, and a sectarian people.
u On the question being put, Lord Holland said, that even
what had fallen from his noble friend, impressed more strongly
on his mind, that no necessity existed for the desired interference.
The whole seemed to go upon a fundamental error, that it was
only, by the permission of government that individuals were to
instruct others in their religious duties. He, on the contrary,
held to be the right of every man who thinks he can instruct his
fellow-creatures, so to instruct them. He was sorry that some-
thing slipped from his noble friend, as if he held it improper
that persons of low origin, or particular trades, should attempt
to teach the doctrines of Christianity. On this point he held
a different opinion. Might not even they be inspired with the
same conscientious feelings of duty which were required to be
felt by those of the higher orders of clergy, to whom the state
had given such large emoluments ? It was his strong feeling,
that it was neither wise nor prudent to meddle with the Act of
Toleration. For the measure itself, he did not think a suffi-
cient case was made out, as to the existence of any real practical
evils or inconveniences, to require such an interposition on the
part of the Legislature. His Lordship then referred to some
calculations as to the increase of dissenting teachers of late
years, which he did not seem to regard as a misfortune, or an
alarming consideration. With respect to what was said of the
established church, he agreed in the opinion, that a want of
sufficient number of places of religious worship was injurious.
This was a point in which the established religion was essen-
tially concerned ; it should take care that no insufficiency in
this respect should exist. He had no objection that the public
purse should, to a certain extent, contribute to the expences of
the necessary erections ; but he thought the immediate funds
of the Church should also contribute. Such was the uniform
custom of the Church of Rome, and the established Church in
this country should shew itself no less mindful of its duty in so
essential a point. With respect to his noble friend's Bill, he
repeated his opinion, there was not a sufficient ground laid for
its adoption.
APPENDIX. 427
cc Earl Stanhope acquiesced in every thing that had fallen
from liis noble Friend (Lord Holland.) That noble Lord, on
whatever question he spoke, whether wright or wrong, wise or
unwise, always spoke from principle. But on the present oc-
casion, he did not think that his noble friend, or the noble vis-
count had gone far enough. They did not, or would not, touch
the real state of the question. They must know, or if they did
not, he would tell them, that in most parts of England, where
the parishes did not consist of more than a thousand souls, the
places of worship, exclusive of private houses, barns, &c. were
as three to four of those of the established church ; and that if
Scotland and Ireland were to be included, the proportion be-
tween the Dissenters and the established Church would be found
as two to one. Lord Sid mouth had told the House, that hardly
more than one half of the clergy were resident on their livings.
It would be much better for his noble friend to bring in a Bill
to correct this evil, than be dabbling with the Dissenters. The
noble Lord had expressed his fears, lest there should be an
established Church and a sectarian people— the truth was, that
this was the case already, and he would advise his noble friend
not to be meddling with that class of men, who had, according
to him, the mischievous gift of the tongue, and who might be
canvassing among the farmers at elections, and hinting to them
that they had tithes to pay. It was better to let these people
alone, and for the noble Lord to exert his magnificent abilities
in correcting the abuses which existed in the Church. It
was well known, that the tide of opinion was running strong a
certain way, and it was as vain to think of stopping the cur-
rent of opinion, as to stop the stars in their course."
The Bill was then presented, and read a first time, a Copy
of which I here insert.
A BILL,
Intituled^ an Act to explain and render more effectual certain Acts
of the first Year of the Reign of King William and Queen Mary,
and of the 19th Fear of the Reign of Bis present Majesty, so
far as the same relate to Protestant Dissenting Ministers,
Whereas, by an Act made in the first year of the reign of
King William and Queen Mary, intituled; An Act for exeropt-
Si 2
428 APPENDIX. /
ing their Majesties' protcstant subjects dissenting from the
church of England from the penalties of certain laws, persons
dissenting from the church of England in holy orders, or pre-
tended holy orders, and preachers or teachers of any congre-
gation of dissenting Protestants, in order to their being entitled
to certain exemptions, benefits, privileges, and advantages, by
the said Act granted, are required to declare their approbation of
and to subscribe to certain articles of religion : and whereas,
by another Act, made in the nineteenth year of the reign of his
present Majesty, intituled, An Act for the further relief of Pro-
testant Dissenting ministers and schoolmasters, it is enacted,
that every person dissenting from the church of England in holy
orders, or pretended holy orders, or pretending to holy orders,
being a preacher or teacher of any congregation of dissenting
Protestants, if lie shall scruple to declare and subscribe, as re-
quired by the said first recited Act, may make and subscribe
the declaration in the said last recited Act set forth, in order to
his being entitled to the exemptions, benefits, privileges, and
advantages, granted by the said first recited Act, and to certain
other exemptions, benefits, privileges, and advantages, granted
by the said last recited Act : and whereas doubts have arisen
as to the description of persons, to whom the said recited
provisions were intended to apply, and it is expedient to
remove the said doubts ; may it therefore please your Majesty
that it may be declared and enacted, and be it declared
and enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with,
the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and
Commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the au-
thority of the same, that every person being a Protestant, dis-
senting from the church of England in holy orders, or pretend-
ed holy orders, or pretending to holy orders, who shall be ap-
pointed or admitted to be the minister of any separate congre-
gation of dissenting Protestants, duly certified and recorded or
registered according to law, shall be, and is hereby declared
to be, a person entitled to qualify himself to be a dissenting
minister, within the intent and meaning of the said recited pro-
visions of the said Acts ; and that no other than such person,
is so entitled; within the intent and meaning of the same.
APPENDIX. 429
And be it farther enacted, that from and after the passing
of this Act, upon the appointment of any person, being a Pro-
testaut, dissenting from the church of England, and being in
holy orders, or pretended holy orders, or pretending to holy
orders, to be the minister of any separate congregation of dis-
senting Protestants, duly certified and recorded or registered
according to law, and upon his admission to the peaceable pos-
session and enjoyment of the place of minister of the said con-
gregation, it shall be lawful for any or more substan-
tial and reputable householders belonging to the said congrega-
tion, in order that the said minister may duly qualify himself
according to this Act, to certify the said appointment and his
admission to the peaceable possession and enjoyment of the said
place, by writing under their hands and proper names, in a
certain form to be directed to the Justices of the Peace at
the General Session of the Peace, to be holden for the county,
riding, or place where such congregation shall be established ;
and every such minister, who shall cause the certificate to
him granted as aforesaid, to be recorded at any General Session
of the Peace to be holden as aforesaid, within mm. »
„ _ after the date of the said certificate, in the
manner directed by this Act, (proof being first made on the
oath of ..„ .or more credible witness or
witnesses of the hand-writing of the several persons of the said
congregation whose names are subscribed to the said certificate,)
shall be and is hereby allowed, without further proof, to take
the oaths, and to make and subscribe the declaration against
Popery, required to be taken and made by the said Act passed
in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary,
and also the declaration set forth in the said Act, passed in the
nineteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty ; and, after
taking the said oaths, and making and subscribing the said de-
clarations, in manner and upon proof aforesaid, every such
minister, shall be, and is hereby declared to be entitled to all
the exemptions, benefits, privileges, and advantages granted to
Protestant dissenting ministers by the said recited Acts or either
of them, or by any Act in the said recited Acts or either of
them mentioned or referred to.
430
APPENDIX,
Provided always, and be it further enacted, that nothing
hereinbefore contained shall affect or impeach, or be construed
to affect or impeach, any provision or exemption, or any qua-
lification or modification thereof, contained in any statute
made since the said recited Acts, and now in force, relating to
the militia, or the local militia, of this kingdom.
Provided also, and be it further enacted, that nothing here-
inbefore contained, shall affect or impeach, or be construed to
affect or impeach, the title or claim of any dissenting minister,
who before the passing of this Act, shall have taken the oaths,
and subscribed the declarations mentioned or'set forth in the
said recited Acts, or either of them, to have and enjoy the ex-'
emptions, benefits, privileges, and advantages, granted by the
said Acts, or either of them.
And whereas it is expedient to exempt from certain penal-
ties, other persons hereinafter described, who shall make and
subscribe the declaration set forth in the said act of the nine-
teenth year of the reign of his present Majesty ; be it further
enacted, that in case any person being a Protestant, dissenting
from the Church of England, and in holy orders, or pretended
holy orders, or pretending to holy orders, but who shall not
have been appointed or admitted the minister of any separate
congregation of dissenting Protestants, shall be desirous of
qualifying himself according to this act, to preach and officiate
as a dissenting minister, it shall be lawful for any or more
substantial and reputable householders being respectively
dissenting Protestants of one and the same sect of persuasion
w ith the person applying, to certify, on their consciences and
belief, by writing under their hands and proper names in a
certain form, to be directed to the justices of the peace at the
general sessions of the peace to be hidden for the county,
riding, or place, where the said householders or the major
part of them shall reside, that such person is a Protestant
dissenting minister of their sect or persuasion, and has been,
known to them and every of them for the space of.
_ at the least before the date of
the said certificate, and that such person is of sober life
and conversation, and of sufficient ability and fitness to preach
appendix. 431
or teach and officiate as such dissenting minister ; and every
person to whom such last mentioned certificate shall be granted,
who shall cause the same to be recorded at any general session
of the peace to be holden as aforesaid, within , ±mm
after the date of the said certificate, in the manner directed by
this act, proof being first made on the oath of or
more credible witness or witnesses of the handwriting of the
several persons whose names are subscribed to the said certi-
ficate, shall be, and is hereby allowed without further proof to
take the said oaths, and make and subscribe the said declara-
tions in the said recited Acts mentioned or set forth ; and every
such person, after taking the said oaths and making and sub-
scribing the said declarations in manner and upon the proof
aforesaid, may from thenceforth preach and officiate as a dis-
senting minister in any congregation of dissenting Protestants
duly certified and registered or recorded according to law ;
and every person so qualifying himself as last aforesaid, shall
be wholly exempted from all and every the pains, penalties,
punishments, or disabilities inflicted by any statute mentioned
in the said recited Acts or either of them, for preaching or
officiating in any congregation of Protestant dissenters for the
exercise of religion permitted and allowed by law.
And be it further enacted, that upon the appointment or ad-
mission of any person of sober life and conversation to be a pro-
bationer for the exercise during a time to be limited of the func-
tions of a protestant dissenting minister, it shall be lawful for
,any .".or more dissenting ministers who shall have taken
the said oaths, and made and subscribed the said declarations
pursuant to the said recited Acts or either of them, or this Act, to
certify the said appointment or admission by writing under their
hands, in a certain form, to be directed to the justices of the peace,
at the general session ot the peace to be holden for the county, ri-
ding, or place where the said ministers, or the major part of them,
shall reside, and that the person so appointed or admitted is of
sober life and conversation, and has been known to them for
the space of. . „ . ..... .before the date of the said
certificate i and every person to whom such last- 'mentioned
432 APPENDIX.
certificate shall be granted, who shall cause the same to be re-
corded at any genera] session of the peace to be holden as afore-
said, wherein after the date of the said last-
mentioned certificate in the manner directed by this Act,
(proof being first made on the oath of or more
credible witness or witnesses of the hand' writing of the said
ministers whose names are subscribed to the said certificate,)
shall be and is hereby allowed without further proofs to take
the said oaths, and to make and subscribe the said several de-
clarations, in the said recited Acts mentioned or set forth ; and
every such person after taking the said oaths, and making
and subscribing the said declarations, may from thenceforth
during the period specified in such certificate, and not ex-
ceeding next ensuing, preach and officiate as such
probationer in any congregation of dissenting Protestants duly
certified and registered or recorded according to law ; and every
person so qualifying himself as last aforesaid shall be and is here-
by declared to be during the space of
exempted from all and every the penalties, punishments, and
disabilities inflicted by any statute mentioned in the said recited
Acts, or either of them, for preaching or officiating in any con-
gregation of dissenting Protestants, for the exercise of religion
permitted and allowed by law.
Provided always, and be it enacted, that nothing herein
contained shall be construed to authorize or enable any person
to qualify more than. .as such probationer.
And be it further enacted, that the Justices of the Peace, to
whom any such certificate as aforesaid shall within the time
herein limited, be tendered at their general session, shall, and
they are hereby required, after such proof in verification thereof
as is herein directed, to administer the said oaths and declara-
tions to the person producing such certificate, upon his offering
to take and make and subscribe the same respectively, and
thereupon to record the said certificate at the said session, and
therefore to keep a register : provided always, that any decla-
ration required to be subscribed by the said recited Acts, or
either of them, shall be subscribed in open court, with the pro-
APteNDix. 433
per christian and surname, and names of the person making
such declaration in his own hand writing, and in the usual
manner of his writing, the same in words at length, and not
otherwise : provided always, that in the body of every certifi-
cate granted by the said officer or officers of the said court to
any person as such probationer and not as minister, there shall
be expressed the limitation of tune for which such certificate
shall be in force by virtue of this Act.
And be it further enacted, that every certificate of appoint-
ment or admission of any such minister, or of any person to
officiate as such minister, or of any such probationer pursuant
to this Act, shall bo subscribed with the respective proper
names of the several persons granting the same in their own
hand writing, and in the usual manner of their writing and sub-
scribing the same, and in the presence of the person or persons
who is or are to be the witness or witnesses to verify the same
before the Court of General Session of the Peace in the manner
herein directed.
And be it further enacted, that this Act shall be deemed and
taken to be a public Act, and shall be judicially taken notice
of as such by all Judges, Justices, and others, without being
specially pleaded." — — ■»—
The reader will immediately see, that this Bill would have
had a strong operation upon the economy of the Methodists,
but the extent of that operation it was impossible to foresee.
However, no sooner was the Bill read, than its effects were suf-
ficiently understood to fill them with great alarm and appre-
hension for their societies, upon which it would have had the
most destructive influence. The members of their " Committee
of Privileges" were immediately summoned to meet, which
they did, May 14, 1811, when they formed, and afterwards
published the following resolutions :
AT A MEETING OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE
SOCIETIES OF THE LATE Rev. JOHN "ESLEY.
Convened for the purpose of taking into consideration a Bill,
brought into the House of Lords by the Right Honourable
Lord Viscount Sidinouth, intituled, " An Act to explain and
3 K
434 APPENDIX,
render more effectual certain Acts of the first year of the
Reign of King William and Queen Mary, and of the nine-
teenth year of the Reign of his present Majesty, so far as the
same relate to Protestant dissenting ministers,"
Held at the New-Chapel, City- Road, London,
The Uth of May, 1811;
IT WAS RESOLVED,
I. That the said Bill, if carried into a law, will be a great
infringement of the laws of religious toleration, and will be sub-
versive of the most valuable rights and privileges which we as
a religious society enjoy.
II. That the said Act will, in future, curtail tbe privileges
and exemptions of our regular preachers, who are wholly de-
voted to the functions of their office, and to which they are le-
gally entitled under the letter and spirit of the Act of Toleration.
III. That the said Act will render it very difficult, if not
impracticable, to obtain certificates for the great body of local
preachers and exhorters, and who are not only an useful part
of our society, but whose aid is essentially necessary in the
very numerous chapels and meeting-houses, in which our con-
gregations assemble.
IV. That with great grief of heart we have observed of late
a growing disposition, in different parts of the country, to dis-
turb our meetings, even those which are held only for prayer
to Almighty God, and to enforce the penalties of the Conventicle
Act upon those who officiate in them: the great inconvenience
and heavy expences of which we have already felt. If this
system of persecution should be persevered in, the subordinate
teachers of our body, to the amount of many thousands of per-
sons in the united kingdom, will be driven to apply for certi-
ficates to protect them from the penalties of the Conventicle
Act, which indeed they can obtain under the existing laws with-
out obstruction ; but if the present Bill should be passed into a
law, it will be utterly impossible to consider such persons as dis-
senting ministers, and to certify them under the said Act : there-
fore, either an end will be put to the functions of a most valuable
and useful part of our community, or they will be exposed to
APPENDIX, 435
all the penalties of the Conventicle Act; the consequence of
which will be, that as the people cannot, and ought not, to re-
frain from Acts of social worship, and meetings for religious in-
struction, the penalties cannot be paid, and the prisons will be
peopled with some of the most peaceable and pious characters
in the country.
V. That a great number of the persons mentioned in the
last resolution (as well as a large proportion of our societies)
considering themselves as members of the established Church,
to which they are conscientiously attached, will feel it quite
incompatible with their sentiments to apply for certificates un-
der the terms of the said Act, which requires them to be certi-
fied and to declare themselves as dissenting ministers.
VI. That the offices alluded to in the fourth resolution, are
an essential part of the economy of our societies, which has for
its object the instruction of the ignorant, and the relief of the
miserable, rather than the creation or extention of a distinct
sect of religion ; and without whose aid, the various chapels of
our societies in the united kingdom, which have cost an im-
mense sum of money in their erection, cannot be supported.
VII. That our chapels have been built, and large sums of
money, due upon the same, for which the respective trustees
are now responsible, have been lent and advanced under the
most perfect confidence that our system so necessary for their
support, would remain-undisturbed ; and that those rights of
conscience, which our most gracious Sovereign on his accesion
to the throne declared should be maintained inviolable, would,
in this happy and enlightened country, ever be held sacred, and
preserved uninfringed.
VIII. That it does not appear to us, that the present tole-
ration laws are either so ineffectual, or the interpretation of
them so uncertain, as to render any Bill necessary to explain
them, much less td curtail the benefits intended to be conveyed by
them; but on the other hand we are satisfied, that if the pre-
sent Bill should pass, the whole lawr of religious toleration
will become more obscure, and its meaning more uncertain ; and
thus a fruitful source of litigation and oppression will be opened,
3k 2
436 APPENDIX,
IX. That the returns of the archbishops and bishops, of
the number of places for divine worship, &c. in their respective
dioceses, upon which the present measure appears to be found-
ed, are far from furnishing evidence of the necessity of restrict-
ing the operations of religious societies ; but on the contrary,
they contain the most decisive proofs (from the inadequacy of
the parish churches to contain the inhabitants of the kingdom)
that the increasing population calls for all (he means of religious
instruction, which well-disposed persons of all denominations
of christians, have in their power to afford.
X. That from the manifest effect which the diffusion of re-
ligion has had for the last fifty years, in raising the standard of
public morals, and in promoting loyalty in the middle ranks,
as well as subordination and industry in the lower orders of so-
ciety, which so powerfully operate upon the national prospe-
rity and public spirit, we dread the adoption of any measure
which can in the least weaken these great sinews of the nation,
or restrain the patriotic efforts of any of the religious commu-
nities of the country.
XI. That as we deprecate the consequences of the Bill as it
now stands, so we cannot see that any modification of it can
meet the views of its Right Honourable and noble proposer,
(whose character we highly respect) without essentially deteri-
orating^ the indefeasible rights and privileges of those who are
the objects of the toleration laws.
XII. That inasmuch as this Act will most deeply affect our
societies, whose moral character and loyalty are unimpeach-
able, we feel it our duty to declare, that we do not believe there
exists among them any practice or disposition, to warrant a
legislative measure, which would abridge our rights and pri-
vileges.
XIII. That the introduction of the present measure is as
unseasonable, as it is needless and oppressive. At any time,
religious rights form a most delicate subject for legislative in-
terference, but at such a time as this, when not only unanimity,
but affection for the government and laws of our country are
more than ever essential, for the patient endurance of the pres-
APPENDIX, 437
sure of the times, and the repulsion of the bitterest enemy with
which this country had to contend, the discussion of these rights
is most feelingly to be deprecated. Much irritation, — even
worse than political irritation, would be produced, and'the ar-
dent affection of many a conscientious and loyal subject would
be involuntarily diminished. We are impressed with these
sentiments the more deeply, as not a shadow of a charge is
brought against our very numerous body, and we can challenge
the most rigid enfquhy into the moral and political character of
our preachers and our people.
XI V. That, abstaining from all observations on the abstract
rights of conscience, but with the views and feelings thus ex-
pressed, we are most decidedly of opinion that the present mea-
sure is radically objectionable, and does not admit of any modi-
fication ; and we cannot but feel it our duty to oppose the Bill
in all its stages by every constitutional means.
XV. That we reflect with high satisfaction on the liberal,
enlightened, and religious declaration of our most gracious So-
vereign, on the commencement of his Reign. " Born," said
his Majesty, in his first speech from the throne, " and educa-
" ted in this country, I glory in the name of Briton, and the
" peculiar happiness of my life will ever consist in promoting
u the welfare of a people, whose loyalty and warm affection to
" me I consider as the greatest and most permanent security of
" my throne ; and I doubt not, but their steadiness in those
" principles will equal the firmness of my invariable resolution
" to adhere to, and strengthen this excellent constitution in
" church and state; and to maintain the toleration
" inviolable. The civil and religious rights of my
" LOVING SUBJECTS ARE EQUALLY DEAR TO ME WITH THE
" MOST VALUABLE PREROGATIVES OF MY CROWN ; and as
" the surest foundation of the whole, and the best means to
" draw down the divine favour on my reign, it is my fixed
" PURPOSE TO COUNTENANCE AND ENCOURAGE THE PRAC-
u tice of true religion and virtue." This declaration
of our beloved Sovereign has been religiously fulfilled during
a long and benificent reign, and has been humbly met by our,
438 APPENDIX.
societies with the affection it was calculated to inspire. We
have built with confidence upon this gracious declaration, and
our confidence has not been misplaced. His Majesty has been
a shield to the religious of all persuasions, and lie lias respected
the rights of conscience in all. And we cannot doubt that Kis
Royal Highness the Prince Regent, with those just sentiments
of truth and sincerity, which he has graciously declared shall
be the guide of his character and every action of his life, will
feel it is happiness to recognize the high natural rights of con-
science ; and should it please the wise disposer of all events to
restore his afflicted Father to the personal exercise of his royal
functions, His Royal Highness will feel it amongst the many
blessings of his benevolent and liberal administration, that he
has, agreeably to the ardent wishes of a great portion of His
Majesty's loyal subjects, preserved those sacred rights entire,
and returned to his beloved Father the Toleration inviolate.
We have too much confidence in the wisdom and justice of
Parliament, to imagine that a measure will be adopted so ob-
noxious to such a large proportion of the nation, as our societies
and congregations constitute: but if unhappily we should be
disappointed, and in the dernier resort, we should be driven to
submit our case to His Royal Highness, we have already the
gratification of his royal assurance, that he will u be ready to
" listen to the complaints of those who may think themselves
" aggrieved, and regulate his conduct upon the established
" principles of that ancient and excellent constitution, under
" which the people of this country have hitherto enjoyed a
u state of unrivalled prosperity and happiness."
The following were some of the reasons which induced the
committee to adopt the foregoing resolutions : —
I. At present every man may choose his own mode of reli-
gious instruction, aud every man who is impressed with the
belief that it is his duty to preach or teach, -has the liberty to
do so, on making oath and subscribing certain declarations.
These are points fully recognized by the Toleration Laws, and
if they were not, religious toleration would, indeed, be confined
APPENDIX. 439
within narrow bounds. But the proposed Bill is quite a mea-
sure of condition and restraint, and would so operate to a very
extensive degree.
II. The magistrate now acts ministerially; he will then, we
contend, act judicially. This is a point of the very highest
consequence to all ranks of christians. At present, the ma-
gistrate has no discretion as to the administering the oaths &c. :
he is required to administer thera to those that offer, &c. But,
if the present Bill should pass, he will, of course become the
judge of the qualities of the householder who certifies, i. e.
how far he is substantial and reputable. It appears to us also,
that he might probably be the judge of the truth of the certifi-
cate : and, therefore, how far the persons certifying were dis-
senting Protestants, and were of the same sect or persuasion.
This would be a most fruitful source of difference of opinion,
and, consequently, the hardship would fall upon the applicant
for a qualification, who would be exposed to infinate vexation.
The very terms are open to difference of opinion in magistrates,
as must every other subject upon which they are to decide
judicially. This would be the subversion of a principle which
has been acknowledged since the first statute on the subject of
toleration. Would the power thus given to the magistrate,
be any thing less than that which he has in licensing public
houses ? and can we suppose this to be fitting in religious matters ?
III. At present, the Court of King's Bench will grant a
mandamus to admit a dissenting teacher "where the chapel is
endowed, as in the case of Rex, v. Barker, 3 Burr. 1264
But if this Bill passes, it will, it is presumed, deprive the first
class of persons, named in. the Bill, of the benefit of this writ
At present, a person must shew that he is legally qualified, ac-
cording to law, to act as a dissenting teacher, before he can
have the benefit of the mandamus ; but under the present Bill,
a person must first be admitted to the peaceable possession and
enjoyment of the place of minister of a congregation before
he can qualify. Now, if there be a contest between £wo per-
sons, as was the case above-mentioned, and one of them, who,
according to the terras of the deed of endowment, is entitled to
440 APPENDIX.
the possession of the chapel, has occasion to apply to the court
for a mandamus to be admitted, how is it possible that the
court can grant it, unless he can shew that he is a legal mi-
nister, qualified according to the existing laws ? This he could
not do for want of a qualification under the Act, and this qua-
lification he could not get, for want of the peaceable possession
of the very situation which formed the subject of contest. It
is obvious, then, what a situation the congregations of endow-
ed chapels would be placed in. The trustees being in posses-
sion of the property, might, in most cases, appoint whom they
/might think proper, and the congregation, and their chosen
minister, would have no redress.
IV. There is a phraseology used in the second section,
which we have never yet seen adopted, arid the mode of word-
ing adds another trait of character before unknown in the law
of toleration. It speaks of the appointment of a person, not
only being a Protestant, dissenting from the Church of England,
and being in holy orders, or pretended holy orders, or pre-
tending to holy orders ; but the applicant must have an addi-
tional character to be entitled to the immunities of William
and Mary, and of 1 9th Geo. Ill, that is, lie must be the mi-
nister of a separate congregation. This word separate, what-
ever be its meaning, as applied to this subject, was never used
till the 43d of Geo. III.
V. With respect to the exemptions, the first class are enti-
tled to all the existing immunities contained in the exemption
from militia services and offices. The second class, who are
intended, it is presumed, to compromise the itinerant preachers
of the Methodist societies, are only exempted by the proposed
Bill from pains and penalties, whereas, at present, they are, we
contend, entitled to all the privileges of the most regular dis-
senting minister, presiding over one congregation only. The
third class are intended, we presume, to comprise the young
student, who is preparing for his office, and preaching to a
congregation on trial. These are also only exempted from pains
and penalties, whereas, at present, they also are entitled to the
privileges of the most regular minister.
APPENDIX, 441
VI. At present, the cost of the certificate is but sixpence,
besides the journey to the sessions to take the oaths ; but by the
proposed law, the applicant must be at the expence of taking a
witness with him to verify the certificate. This, when the
sessions are at a distance, will sometimes be of importance to a
poor candidate for the ministry ; but when it is coupled with
the circumstance, that this Bill proposes to give the magistrate
a judicial power, which will leave him at liberty, more or less,
to reject the certificate, on account of the want, as he may sup-
pose, of substance or reputation in the certifier, the disappoint-
ment, vexation, and expence may be endless. If the Magi-
strate have power thus to determine and to reject on the first
application, so he may on the second, and ultimately, the ap-
plicant may never be considered as properly qualified; and he
at length may be obliged to make an application to the superior
courts, the determination of which, as it would be a question of
fact, might be very expensive. The consequence of this clause3
we apprehend, will be very serious.
These being their conclusions, they looked at the proposed
Bill with dread and dismay, as being calculated to make the
most alarming inroads upon the rights and privileges they had
enjoyed since the foundation of their societies in the year 1739.
I shall here also record some of the very judicious and lauda-
ble proceedings of the committees of Protestant dissenters on
this business.
The Ministers of the three denominations of Protestant dis-
senters (Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists,) resident in
and about London, have, for nearly a century, regularly as-
sociated, and have assembled, at least, annually, for the man-
agement of their affairs. A committee was appointed by them,
about two years ago, to attend to the progress of the Bill which
the noble lord had signified his intention to introduce. As soon
as the provisions of this Bill were made known, the committee
called a general meeting of the whole body, on Thursday,
May 16. The meeting was uncommonly numerous; and the
discussions which took place were conducted with candour and
harmony. 3 l
442 APPENDIX.
Library, Red-Cross-Street, May 16, 1811 . — At a numer-
ous meeting of the general body of Protestant dissenting mini-
sters, of the three denominations, residing in and about the
cities of London and Westminster, regularly summoned to de-
liberate on the means of opposing the Bill introduced into the
House of Lords by Viscount Sidmouth, which has a tendency
to narrow the provisions of the Toleration Act, the following re-
solutions were unanimously adopted : —
1. That the right of peaceably assembling, for the pur-
poses of religious worship and public instruction, according to
the dictates of our own consciences, belongs to us as men, as
christians, and as members of civil society ; that this right
ought not to be abridged or controled, by any secular authority ;
and that we cannot consent to the alienation or surrender of it,
without criminality on our own parts, disrespect to the memory
of those from whom we have, under providence, received it,
and injury to the best interests of our descendants and succes-
sors ; to whom it is our duty, as far as we are able, to transmit
it inviolable.
2. That this right has been recognized and maintained,
from the Revolution to tlie present day, partly by a liberal con-
struction of the Toleration Act, and partly by the protection of
the illustrious Princes of the House of Brunswick; and that it
would betray a want of confidence in the favour of our Sove-
reign, in the justice of the legislature, and in the spirit of the
times, to submit to any proposed restrictions of this right, in
passive silence.
3. That as faithful and loyal subjects, attached to the civil
constitution of our country, and desirous of contributing to
that tranquility and union on which its permanence and pros-
perity very much depend, we cannot forbear expressing our re-
gret that any measures should be proposed which have a ten-
dency, by abridging our liberty as Protestant dissenters, and
restraining the exercise of social worship among those with
whom we have connected, to excite dissatisfaction and discon-
tent at the present interesting crisis ; and more especially at a
time when we had reason to hope that our liberty would have
APPENDIX* 443
been enlarged instead of being restrained ; though we are peace-
ably waiting for that period in which this happy event shall
take place, and penal laws no longer have any operation in the
province of religion.
4. That {he Bill now introduced into the House of Lords
appears to us inconsistent with the unmolested liberty which,
we have long thankfully enjoyed ; repugnant to our principles
ami profession as Protestant dissenters, who disavow the autho-
rity of the civil magistrate in the province of religion, and im-
posing restrictions which will be in various respects, injurious
and oppressive.
5. That it is our duty, on our own behalf, and on behalf
of our brethren, as well as with a view to the cause of religious
liberty in general, to make every constitutional effort in our
power for preventing this Bill from passing into a law ; and that
for this purpose a petition be presented by this body to the
House of Peers.
Dan. Taylor, Chairman.
At a Meeting of the Deputies appointed for supporting the
< Civil Rights of Protestant dissenters, held at the King's
Head Tavern, in the Poultry, London, May 15, 1811,
William Smith, Esq. M. P. in the Chairs
Resolved, That liberty of conscience, comprehending the
freedom of public assemblies for religious worship and instruc-
tion, in such forms and under such teachers as men shall for
themselves approve, is the unalienable right of all ; in the
peaceable exercise of which they are not justly controlable by
the civil magistrate.
Resolved, That this liberty has been generally recognized
in the practice of the British Government since the aera of the
Revolution, under the construction of the statute commonly
called the Toleration Act ; whatever may have been the letter of
the law, the spirit of toleration has been extended, and a large
portion of religious liberty actually enjoyed.
Resolved, That we have beheld, with great concern, a Bill
lately brought iato Parliament, designed, as appears to us, to
3l 2
444 APPENDIX.
abridge such religious liberty, and having a tendency to de-
prive the lower classes of the community of those opportunities
which they have so long enjoyed, to attend public worship and
religious instruction under teachers of their own choice.
Resolved, That, as deputies appointed by large and respect-
able bodies of Protestant dissenters to attend to their civil rights,
it becomes our bounden duty immediately to protest against
the principle of such measure, and to point out the unjust and
vexatious operation of the aforesaid Bill, as now brought into
Parliament.
Resolved^ That a Petition against the said Bill, grounded
on the principles of the foregoing resolutions, be signed by the
members of this meeting, and presented to the legislature.
Resolved^ That the foregoing resolutions be signed by the
chairman, and inserted in all the public papers.
W. Smith, Chairman.
At a Numerous and Respectable Meeting of Protestant Dis-
senters of various Denominations, and other Friends to Re-
ligious Liberty, residing in different parts of the United
Empire, held at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street,
May the 15th, 1811, Samuel Mills, Esq. in the Chair.
It was unanimously agreed,
I. That this meeting believe that there are at least two
millions of Protestant dissenters in the kingdom of England
and Wales, including persons of opulent fortunes, high lite-
rary attainments, and active benevolence : that their exertions
have contributed to promote industry, knowledge, good morals,
social order, and public prosperity. That they are not inferior
to any of their fellow-subjects in fervent love to their country,
nor in ardent loyalty to their venerable sovereign, whose early
promise, ' to preserve the toleration inviolate/
has made an indelible impression on their hearts ; — and that
any measures which might excite their discontent and enfeeble
their attachment, would, therefore, at any time, and especially
at this period, be inconsistent with the national interest, and
with wise and liberal policy.
APPENDIX. 445
II. That although this meeting; consider the right to worship
God according to individual judgment as an inalienable right
superior to all social regulations ; and, although they have
long anticipated a period when all penal laws for worshipping
God according to their consciences would be abolished, they
have been unwilling to agitate the public mind for the attain-
ment of their hopes ; and presuming that no persons would, in
this age, venture to assail the Act of Toleration, after the ever-
memorable declaration of the King, they have been content to
regard it with grateful emotions, and to esteem it as an effectual
protection against the recurrence of former persecutions.
III. That the persons assembled at this meeting have re-
ceived, with great anxiety, the communications frequently
made by the Right Hon. Viscount Sidmouth, of his intention to
propose legislative enactments, interfering with the laws relating
to Protestant dissenters ; that they did hope the applications he
has received, and the information communicated, would have
prevented his perseverance. But they have learned the dis-
appointment of their hopes, and have ascertained the provisions
of the Bill which he has at length introduced into parliament
with extreme regret, and with painful apprehension.
IV. That this Bill declares that all the provisions relating
to dissenting ministers, contained in the Toleration Act, and iri
the subsequent Act for their further relief, were intended to be
limited only to ministers of separate congregations ; and enacts,
1. That such ministers upon being admitted to the peaceable
possession and enjoyment of the place of minister of a separate
congregation, may, on a certificate in writing, under the hands
of substantial and reputable householders belonging to such
congregation, signed in the presence of some credible witness,
who is to make proof of their signatures upon oath at a general
Sessions of the Peace, be permitted to take the oaths, and to
sign the declaration previously required ; and shall then, and
then only, during their continuance to be ministers of such se-
parate congregation, be intitled to all the privileges and exemp-
tions which the former acts had conferred. 2. That any other
person who may desire to qualify himself to preach as a dissent-
446 APPENDIX.
ing minister, must procure several substantial and reputable
householders, being dissenters of the same sect, and of the same
congregation, to certify on their consciences, in writing, to his
being a Protestant dissenting minister of (heir sect, and of the
same congregation, and to their individual and long knowledge
of his sobriety of conversation, and of his ability and fitness to
preach ; and that such certificate must be proved, ns before
stated, beibre he be exempt from the pains, penalties, and pu-
nishments to which he would otherwise be liable as a dissenting
minister. And, 3. That any person of a sober life and con-
versation, admitted to preach on probation to any separate con-
gregation, must produce a certificate from several dissenting
ministers (who have taken the oaths, to be also proved on oath
at a general Session) of his life and conversation, and to their
long previous knowledge, before he can be permitted to take
the oaths and subscribe the declaration ; and that he may then,
during a limited period, to be specified in the certificate, offi-
ciate as a probationer to any dissenting congregation, and be
during a limited period, exempt from prosecution and punish-
ment. But neither of the two last mentioned classes of persons,
will be entitled to any privileges, or to the exemptions from
offices conferred on dissenting ministers by the Toleration Act.
V. That the principle assumed as the foundation of the Bill
is incorrect : — That the Toleration Act authorised any persons
to become dissenting ministers who conceived themselves to be
called and qualified to preach, upon giving security tothe State
for their loyalty and christian principles, by taking certain
oaths and subscribing certain declarations ; and not only pre-
vented their persecution under laws made in times less favour-
able to civil and religious liberty, but conceiving their labours
to be of public utility, granted to them exemptions from all
parochial offices and other duties which might interfere with
their more important exertions : — That such construction of the
Act of Toleration has been sanctioned by the general practice of
a century, and has never been impunged by any decision in a
superior court of law ; and that even if such construction be in-
correct, and legislative exposition be required, such declaratory
APPENDIX,
447
Bill ought to follow the intention of the Act which has subse-
quently passed ; and should extend and not contract, — protect
and not impair, the relief afforded by the former ancient and
venerable statute.
VI. That the Bill introduced into parliament is not justi-
fied by any necessity, and will be highly injurious ; that it is
unnecessary, because the evils presumed to result from the
abuses of the existing laws, by a few persons who may have
improperly taken the oaths required from dissenting preachers
and teachers, do not exist but to a most inconsiderable extent ;
and because the extension of all such abuses has been anxi-
ously, and would be effectually discountenanced by every
class of Protestant dissenters — and that it must be injurious,
because it will introduce forms unprecedented, inconvenient,
or impracticable ; will render itinerant preachers, students of
divinity, ministers on probation, and many persons to whose
ardent piety and disinterested labours multitudes are indebted
foMeligious instruction, liable to serve all civil offices,, .and
will expose all ministers, or the witnesses to their certificates,
to be harrassed by repeated attendances at different sessions,
and to capricious examinations, and unlimited expence,—
because, by limiting the right of persons to become dissenting
ministers, it will impose new restrictions on toleration ; and
because it will create a precedent for future attempts at even
more dangerous or fatal experiments against religious liberty.
VII. That, although most reluctant to interference with po-
litical affairs, they cannot but regard the present attempt with
peculiar sensations of alarm ; and that veneration for their an-
cestors, regard to their posterity, respect for rights which they
can never abandon, and the sacred obligations which they feel,
will therefore compel them to disregard all doctrinal and ritual
distinctions, and to unite by every legitimate effort to prevent
the pending Bill from passing into a law, and to oppose the
smallest diminution of the privileges secured by the Act of
Toleration. .
VI II . That from the noble declaration of the liberal-minded
and illustrious Prince Regent of the Empire, that he will deli-
448 APPENDIX,
ver up the constitution unaltered to bis Royal Father, this meet-
ing are encouraged to indulge confident hope that a measure
so innovating and injurious can never obtain the sanction of
his high authority ;l and they also rejoice that it has not been
introduced by his Majesty's government ; that respectful appli-
cation be therefore made to them for their wise and continued
protection ; that a petition to the House of Lords against the
Bill be signed by all the persons present at this meeting, and
that all congregations of Protestant dissenters, and other friends
of religious liberty throughout the empire, be recommended
to present similar petitions, and that a committee consisting of
persons resident in London, be appointed to effectuate these
proceedings, and to adopt any measures they may deem ex-
pedient to prevent the successful prosecution of this Bill ; and
that dissenting ministers of every denomination resident in the
country, be also members of this committee : and that such
committee may increase their number, and that anj' three
members be competent to act."
S. MILLS, Chairman.
I now return to the proceedings of the general committee of
the societies of the late Rev. John Wesley.
On Thursday they were closely engaged all day in carrying
the aforesaid measure into effect, and sending a copy of the re-
solutions into every circuit throughout the kingdom, that their
friends might know the opinion of the committee on the sub-
ject, and be prepared to co-operate with it, in every future
measure which might be deemed necessary to the preservation
of our religious rights.
As Lord Sidmouth had fixed on Friday the 17th for the
second reading of the Bill, there was but little time for obtain-
ing signatures to a petition ; however, this little time was im-
proved, and on Friday morning, before eleven o'clock, upwards
of two thonsand signatures were obtained to petitions from
their different societies and congregations in the two London
circuits.
APPENDIX* 449
Application was made to Lord Erskine, who paid the ut-
most attention to their case ; at the same time he most readily
engaged to present their petitions to the House, and to oppose
the Bill ; as did also Lords Grey and Holland.
In the evening. Lord Stanhope moved, that the second read-
ing of the Bill should be deferred till some future day, which
motion was seconded by Earl Grey, and acceded to by Lord
Sidmouth ; who in a short speech informed the House, that on
Tuesday the 21st he should bring the subject forwards for
dscussion.
This delay was considered a favourable interposition of
Providence, as it afforded the Committee opportunity for pro-
curing parchments, and preparing a copy of a petition, to be
sent into those circuits from whence they could be returned
before Tuesday noon. Special messengers were sent to Bris-
tol, Birmingham, and into some parts of Kent and Sussex ; and
these were provided with directions and parcels, to be left in
every circuit through which they passed, that the urgency of
the business might be understood, and every energy exerted
to accomplish their purpose.
To evince the zeal and activity which prevailed on this
occasion, I here give an extract from a letter written by a
gentleman of high respectability, who was actively engaged in
this business.
"May 23, 1811.
" Since last Thursday I have been fully occupied, by the
" Committee of Privileges," on the business of Lord Sidmouth's
Bill. On Saturday night at eight o'Clock two post chaises and,
four, set off on this important business, one to Birmingham,
and the other to Bristol. At half past eleven the same night, I was
sent to seek another, but after going all over the city, was obli-
ged to return to the committee room without one. At half past
twelve o'clock, I procured a coach in Aldersgate-street, and,
with a friend, drove all over the town in search of a convey-
ance. A little before three o'Clock in the morning while we .
were knocking up the people at the fifteenth Inn3 a respect-
3 M.
450 APPENDIX,
able looking man came up with a lanthorn and enquired,
" what was the matter?" we answered ' we wanted a post
chaise and four, and must have it, it being on parliament-
ary business.' He replied " he could have supplied us had
we come at a more seasonable hour, but now he had only one
post boy in the house, and he was gone to bed." We beg-
ged of him to do what he could for us, and at length per-
suaded him to drive us himself. The horses were put to in a
trice, and we set off full speed for Bromley, which we reached
in an hour and a quarter. Here we again knocked up the
people at the Inn, but lost half an hour before they were rea-
dy. Having left our petitions, with solemn orders to deliver
them as soon as it was light, we set oft' for Sevenoaks, which
we reached before seven o'clock. Here, while we were ex-
plaining the nature of the business we came on, to Mr
we partook of a hasty breakfast. We then jumped into the
chaise and started for Tunbridge ; having delivered our parcels
and given suitable directions', we drove on to the Wells ; after
delivering our message there, with steady course we pursued
our way to Rye, and drove up to the chapel. The morning
service was concluded and the people were just coming out ;
we instantly desired them to stop, telling them, we had come
express from London on very important business. Having
ascended the pulpit stairs, with every eye fixed upon us, we
laid before them the purport of our mission, by informing
them of the Bill, and explaining its nature. We then inform-
ed them of the Committee appointed for guarding their pri-
vileges, and read their resolutions : we told them also of whom
the Committee consisted, and that we had travelled the whole
night to reach them at that time. We then requested those to
stay who wished to sign the petition ; not a dozen went away
till they had signed. One man indeed, when he heard none
was permitted to sign who was under sixteen, whispered to
another, and said, " he should not sign, for he thought it was
a scheme to take them by surprise to get them drawn for the
Militia."
" .We dispatched messengers to the places adjacent, to be,
APPENDIX, 451
ready for the evening service : one went out thirteen miles, and
did not return until midnight. I left my friend Mr ,
at Rye, while I went to W inchelsea, about three miles off. The
minister had just concluded his sermon when I arrived ;
having informed him of my design, he requested the whole
congregation to stop when the service was ended. I then
stated the case, and most of the people signed the petition : one
man came and said, " pray Sir, let somebody sign for me."
" My good man," said 1, " it will not be allowed, you must
assist us by your prayers." " Really Sir," said another, " I
could wish to sign, but I never wrote my name in my life, but
do give me the pen and I will try !"
" At twelve o'clock on Monday we bent our course home-
ward, and on Tuesday about the same hour, we reached town.
We sat close till five o'clock in the afternoon, sending off peti-
tions, in alphabetical order, by coaches, till a message came down
express from the House of Lords to inform us, that the business
was about to begin. Every one therefore took his arms full
and conveyed them to the coach, which instantly drove off with
all speed to the House. I and two other friends had three
good loads of those remaining ones which were taken from us
at the door of the anti-cliamber of the House.
u We had at that time above a thousand petitions on the
road. The operations of the Bill were not known beyond the
environs of the Metropolis, and jet a mighty flood of petitions
poured in. Lord Erskine undertook the cause of our societies.
u After bringing into the House many bags full, the petitions
were still so numerous, that his Lordship was obliged to fetch
the rest from the anti-chamber in his arras, and he came
down to the House several times in this manner loaded like a
porter."
I was myself at Leeds at the time when this Bill was pend-
ing in the House : the petitions for that Town and neighbour-
hood arrived on Wednesday morning May 22nd. The Com-
mittee which had been previously formed was sitting at the
time, and they immediately dispatched messengers into dif-
ferent parts of the town, and the adjacent villages, to obtain
3n2
452 APPENDIX.
signatures. In the course of that afternoon and the forenoon
of the following day some thousands had signed the petitions,
and had not the business been stopped on the Thursday after-
noon by the arrival of the pleasing tidings that the Bill was
lost, many thousands more signatures would have been obtained
in a few days.
The different denominations of Dissenters in that large and
populous Town, formed a Committee of respectable gentle-
men, who also manifested great zeal and activity in this noble
cause ; they deputed several persons to go to their respec-
tive congregations in the country, to obtain signatures to their
petitions, which they likewise obtained in abundance. Indeed,
such unity of sentiment I never witnessed on any subject be-
fore; the pious and candid members of the established Church,
cordially united with the Methodists and Dissenters to shew
their decided disapprobation of the obnoxious Bill, and all,
as with one heart and voice, avowed their determination to
oppose, to the uttermost, all restrictions on Religious Liberty.
The same activity was manifested, and similar exertions
made, in every part of the kingdom were the nature of the
Bill was thoroughly understood, its effects were deeply de-
plored and deprecated by all classes of people in the land.
" In every place the Messengers met with the most zealous
co-operation of the people, who dreading the loss of their re-
ligious privileges, came forwards to sign the petitions with an
eagerness which was highly honourable to their feelings. At
Bristol, the Mayor granted the use of the Town-Hall, and al-
though the notice was so short,yet between twelve and five o'clock
on Monday, the petition received upwards of 1900 signatures,
and this was in addition to separate petitions from all the dis-
senting congregations in the city, which were numerously
signed. By these means the committee had procured before
Tuesday noon upwards of 250 petitions, bearing 30,000 Sig-
natures. The Committee was incessantly employed in examin-
ing and taking an account of them. And that every thing
might be conducted with the utmost regularity, almost every
petition was separately rolled up, tied with red tape, and the
APPENDIX. 453
place from whence it came, together with the number of sig-
natures it contained, legibly written on one end of the roll, so
that when it was presented, the noble Lord had no difficulty
in announcing these particulars to the House. It required the
utmost exertions of the committee to prepare all things in rea-
diness before the House met ; however, this was accomplished,
and the petitions were delivered to Lord Erskine in one of the
anti-chambers. His Lordship was pleased to express his sa-
tisfaction witli what had been done, and whilst he was carry-
ing his burthens into the House, appeared to feel a noble pride
in the office he had undertaken to perform."
Earl Stanhope said, he held in his hand a petition
against the Bill, signed by upwards of 2000 persons ; .and he
had no doubt that if the Bill was persisted in, the petitioners
against it, instead of thousands, must be counted by millions.
The petition having been received, and ordered to lie on
the table,
The Earl of Liverpool rose, and after bearing his testi-
mony to the good intentions of his noble friend who had intro-
duced the Bill, and who, he was confident, had nothing in view
dangerous to the wholesome and wise system of toleration in this
country, expressed his doubts respecting the prudence of his
farther pressing the measure. If it were pressed, the good
that would result, would be comparatively much less than was
expected in any view of the subject. But if it were pressed
under the present misconceptions of its object, and the alarm
and apprehension thereby created, the evils produced by it
might far prepondrate. The Toleration Laws, he was ready
to say, were matters on which he thought the Legislature should
not touch, unless it were from causes of great paramount neces-
sity. Under all these circumstances, he trusted that his noble
friend would see the propriety of not farther pressing his Bill,
Lord Viscount Sidmouth said he was placed in a situation
of considerable difficulty, as he must Consider the sentiments
expressed by the noble Earl as the sentiments of the Govern-
ment of which he was a principal part. Yet, if his noble
friend confessed that misconceptions had gone abroad on the
454 APPENDIX.
object of his measure, (hat could not be a reason sufficient for
him to withdraw his Bill in the present stage of it. The great*
est misconceptions, misapprehensions, and he might add, mis*
representations of the Bill had been made without doors ; so
that although it was not regular in that stage to enter into par-
ticulars, he should for convenience, if not regular, take that op-
portunity of stating what the Bill was and what it was not.
Earl Grey spoke to order. He would be the last person
to interrupt the noble Viscount, but it was certainly quite out
of order to enter into the details of the question on the presen-
tation of the petitions, when the opportunity of addressing the
House would so soon occur on the second reading. He was
convinced of the purity of intention by which his noble friend
was actuated, and that he entertained no design of infringing on
the just and liberal toleration of every man's opinion and wor-
ship ; but he thought that the present was not the time for dis-
cussing the question when they were receiving petitions, unless
the reception of them was to be objected to.
Lord Viscount Si o mouth said he should not farther trou-
ble the House at that time. It had not been his intention to take
up their time long ; but he should reserve himself till the second
reading, then more fully to explain himself.
Earl Stanhope presented fifteen other petitions from dif-
ferent dissenting congregations in various parts of England,
(Castlecary, Market Harborough, &c.) which were severally
ordered to lie on the table.
Lord Holland rose, and said he had numerous petitions
to present to the House against the present Bill, the first of
which he should move to be read. It was the joint petition of
the three denominations of the dissenters in, and in the vicinity
of, t-he metropolis, namely, the Presbyterian, the Baptist, and
the -Independent. He should say little by way of preface, ex-
cept that he believed that that, as well other petitions, would
shew, that the people of this country were not so ignorant of the
nature and character of a Bill brought into Parliament as not
to see and appreciate its consequences on their civil or their re-
ligious liberty. He was happy to hear from the noble Secre-
APPENDIX, 455
iary of "State what he had heard from him that night on the im-
policy of such a measure. But, lie must say, that the noble Vis-
count had very fairly shaped his course in the proceedings both
last session and this. He (Lord Holland) had last June stated
his intention to look with much care and great jealousy at any
attempt to meddle with or impair the provisions of the Tolera-
tion Act, and he thanked the noble Viscount for having so fully-
explained his views this session. He could not, however,
avoid expressing his surprise and regret that the noble Secretary
of State had not taken $n opportunity, either last session or this,
of stating his prudential objection to the adoption of this mea-
sure, instead of leaving that to the present occasion, when the
petitions against it were crowding in from all parts of England.
He then presented the petition, which was received, and order-
ed to lie on the table.
Lord Holland then stated that he had a great number of
other petitions.
The Earl of Morton said it was desirable to know whether
any of those petitions contained matter which reflected upon, or
was irregular to be presented to that House.
Lord Holland said he had been unable to read them all.
Several he had read, which contained no such matter. But he
should feel pleasure iu having them all read to the House, if it
would not be too inconvenient in respect of time.
The Earl of Laudejidale said that he also had many
petitions to present. Such was, however, the opinion he en-
tertained of the respectability of character of the persons who
had framed them, that, if there was any intention shown of
casting doubt or reflections on them, he certainly should move
that every one of those which he should present should be read.
The Earl of Morton was satisfied with the explanation of
the noble Baron (Lord Holland.)
The petitions presented by Lord Holland, 65 in number,
were then received, the preambles read, and ordered to lie on
the table. They were from congregations in a number of pla-
ces in Wiltshire, Essex, Dorset, Berks, Middlesex, &c; one
petition we believe, was signed by above 4000 persons.
456 APPENDIX,
The Earl of Mo i it a rose, and after some observations on
the respectability of the petitioners, declared bis readiness to
stake his responsibility for the propriety of the sentiments they
contained. His Lordship then presented a great number of
petitions from different places in London, Westminster, Surrey,
Middlesex, Kent, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Berks, Sussex,
Bucks, Wilts, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Hants, Herts, Der-
byshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, &c*
amounting to about seventy, all which were ordered to lie
on the table.
The Earl of Lauderdale then rose, and presented
twenty petitions from Bath, the Isle of Wight, Kent, and va-
rious other places, with signatures to the amount of more than
10,000 names, all which were taken as read, and ordered to
lie on the table.
Earl Grey presented apetition from a Meeting at Bris-
tol, which his Lordship said was intended to have been pre-
sented by the High Steward of that city (Lord Grcnville.)
His noble friend could not attend in the House that night, but
he was confident, from what he knew of his opinions respect-
ing the important subject of Toleration, that he was favour-
able to the prayer of the petition. Ordered to lie on the table.
The Duke of Norfolk observed, that persons not dissenters,
but friends to the principle of Toleration, had signed the
petition.
Earl Grey then presented seventy-seven other petitions from
Lewes, Portsmouth, Daventry, Colnbrook, Gloucester, and
other places, which were also ordered to lie on the table.
The Earl of Rosslyn presented twenty-five similar petitions
from different places. Ordered to lie on the table.
Lord Erskine stated, that he had two hundred and fifty-
five petitions to present on the same important subject. He
should make no other prefatory remark, but to say, that they
contained the same opinions on that question which he himself
maintained on the subject of the Toleration Act. After having
read one of the petitions, his Lordship proceeded to present
them to the House, when it was a little amusing to see him en-
APPENDIX. 457
gaged for more than half an hour, in lifting up his bags full of
rolls one after another, and laying them on the table, then draw-
ing them out and announcing the place from whence each came,
and the number of signatures affixed. They were from many
parts of the south of England, and some of them had an im-
mense number of signatures.
The Marquis of Lansdowne then stated, that he had
above 100 different petitions to present to their Lordships on
the same subject, and of the same tenor. The first petition he
presented, his Lordship stated, was signed by many persons
not Protestant dissenters ; several of them beneficed clergymen
of the established church, who, equally with the Protestant dis«
senters, deprecated any interference with the Toleration Laws ;
and was signed by 896 persons. All these petitions were also
received, and ordered to lie on the table.
The number of all the petitions received was about 629.
The order of the day was then called for by several Lords,
when
Lord Viscount Sidmouth rose, and said, that in moving
the second reading of this Bill, he should make no remarks on.
the number of the petitions which had been presented against
it, as he readily supposed that the petitioners sincerely believed
what they had expressed with respect to the operation of it.
His noble friend (Lord Liverpool) had truly stated, that great
misconception and misapprehension had gone forth respecting
the Bill, and he must add, great misrepresentation. The va-
rious public vresolutions were, for the greater part, inapplicable
to the real objects of his Bill. When the intelligent mind of
his noble friend was not quite free from misconception, he
could not wonder at seeing the misapprehensions of others. It
seemed to be thought that some change was intended in our
Toleration Laws. What was it ? The object of the Bill, the
clauses of which might be amended in the Committee, was
merely to give uniformity to the two Acts on which our system
of toleration was founded ; its object was not to exclude any
class of dissenters, but to comprehend all, according to the spi*
rit and meaning of those Acts. This was the sole purpose of
the Bill, fie was led to propose it, from information, he had
3'n -
458 v APPENDIX.
a considerable time since received, of what was; and is the pre-
valent mode of executing those Acts. He lamented to think
that the eirect of those Bills was, that any persons of depraved
morals should be able by taking the oath of allegiance, by ma-
king the declaration against popery, and subscribing to certain
articles of the church, or declaring himself, under the 19th of
the present King, a christian and protestant, and a believer that
the Old and New Testaments contained the revealed will of
God, to claim his licence, and that his certificate should enable
hini to preach any where any doctrines he pleased ; and that
this did, in fact, till 1802, exempt him from many civil and from
all military services. At first he could hardly credit that inter-
pretation of the laws. He could state, but that he feared fati-
guing their Lords!) ips, informations from many magistrates, of
numerous applications at Quarter Sessions, evidently to obtaiu
these exemptions. He had heard of what he confessed was
creditable to a sect of Dissenters, wherein they acknowledged
these abuses, and expressed their desire to correct them by the
expulsion from among them of such unworthy persons ; (the
Wesleyan connexion was here alluded to.) He had learned
with satisfaction, that though the prevalent interpretation of the
law was as he had stated, yet with many well-informed and
respectable persons it was not so. In Devon, Norfolk, Bucks,
and in Suffolk too, he learned that that interpretation was not
admitted. Feeling the abuses that were committed, learning
the opinions of enlightened men, and the practice of many res-
pectable magistrates on this subject, he had felt it necessary to
bring the consideration of it before parliament. He had been
encouraged to do so by the opinions of respectable persons, of
magistrates, and judges ; and he had stated, in June, 1809,
that he intended to do nothing but what was with a view to se-
cure the toleration of Protestant dissenters, as well as the sup-
port of the church of England, of which he gloried in being
a member. By this fair standard he had proceeded, and in his
Bill there was nothing to be found inconsistent with it. — He
had not contented himself with the authorities he had mentioned,
but had sought further information, and even communications,
with various/ issenters. From some of them he had received vo->
APPENDIX. 459
luntary communications, and with others he had had conversa-
tion ; and though many wished he should take no steps in the
business, few objected to the measure he proposed. They
thought merely, though the measure was innocent, yet that it
might excite in other quarters a disposition to introduce into it
objectionable clauses. They did not seem, on the whole, to
think there was any thing in it materially objectionable. Every
class of dissenting preachers, in fact, who had separate congre-
gations, were left by this Bill in the same state as before, with
the removal of all sorts of impediments, and the magistrate
would know better what was his duty on such subjects. What
better mode of attestation could there be than that of several
persons of the congregation for those who sought for licences ?
As to the question of substantial and reputable householders, or
householders merely, that was a consideration for the Commit-
tee, There was no other regulation but to relieve them from
different practices at different Quarter Sessions.
The second point applied to such as had not separate con-
gregations. He did not expect to meet with any difficulty on
this subject from the quarter whence it rose. It would be a
farce to talk of /toleration, he confessed, and at the same time
to exclude this class of persons from the rights allowed to
other Protestant dissenters, though he must say, that he knew
they had often given great pain and vexation to many most
excellent and meritorious beneficial clergymen. Yet he must
in candour admit, that hundreds and thousands of people would,
through our own unpardonable and abominable neglect, be de-
prived of all moral and religious instructions, were it not for tliQ
services of these persons. Millions in this country were in-
debted to them for their religious instruction. (Hear I) We are
not at liberty to withold the only means of moral and religious
knowledge. He had not, therefore, excluded such persons,
which would have been contrary to indispensible and eternal
justice. The third point of his Bill related to probationers.
He had on that point, proposed that six persons should sign
their belief of the sober and exemplary life, of the capacity,
3n2
460
APPENDIX,
&c; of the individual. What test could be more moderate ?
His object was to follow up the principles of the toleration
laws, which never meant that any person should assume to
himself the privilege of a preacher and teacher, and exercise
such important functions, without some attestations. — (Hear!)
Any person under the Bill might then be chosen, nay, lie
might be said even to choose himself, if he procured such at-
testations. He confessed he did, confidently, but, as he had
found, vainly, expect, that he should have had the consent of
all the sects and descriptions, who felt w'hat was due to the pu-
rity, sanctitjr, and dignity of religion. All lie was apprehen-
sive of was, that some friends to the established church might
think the Bill would be inefficient for what was requisite ; but
he never thought that any Protestant dissenter would consider
it inconsistent with the wise and just enactments of the toler-
ation laws. He learned that in the customs of dissenters,
probation was requisite for the proof of the gifts necessary for
the ministerial office ; therefore, he had merely proposed that
three dissenting preachers should sign a testimony in the pro-
bationer's favour. In our own church, by our ecclesiastical
laws, there were certain probations and attestations to be made.
A Deacon must have the testimonials of three clergymen to his
life, gifts, &c. His name must also be read three times in
church. He did not mean to say that this always prevented
improper introductions, but that such were the precautions
that were observed by law. Though he had received much
information on the subject, no. man should be placed by him
in an unpleasant situation by his stating his name, though there
were noble Lords present who knew what information he had
received. From the itinerant Methodists, of whom he did not
wish to speak disrespectfully, he had grounds on which he ex-
pected their approbation. He had formed his opinions from
those of magistrates and respectable gentlemen of various des-
criptions. Objections had been started at first by his noble
friend, for whom he had much respect, (Lord Holland) who
seemed to think that any man had a right to take on himself
the office of teacher, on making the declarations, &c. and that
APPENDIX* ' 461
it was not a question for the Legislature to take up. He would
say, that this opinion was utterly inconsistent with the meaning
of the Toleration Act. That Act, right or wrong, was a
measure of condition. (Hear, hear ! from the opposition side. )
He never could agree to those broad principles. But in some
respects, he thought these laws intolerant ; where, for instance,
they limited' religious doctrines. (Hear, hear!) His noble
friend had called the Toleration Act the palladium of religious
liberty. What did he admire in it ? Its beneficent effects, he
had said, in its providing freedom of worship. Could he dei\y9
that it was differently acted upon in different counties ? in
proportion to his admiration of it, his wish should be to render
its operation universal. It was not so at present. There was
no case, wherein when the licence had been refused, tlie party
had, at least for many years, resorted to (lie Court of King's
Bencl). He went to another county. Tims, there was a dif-
ferent interpretation in counties bordering upon each other.
Let the benefit, therefore, be made universal. If this measure
were improper, come at once to the assertion of the broad prin-
ciple, and try to alter the laws in that way. That broad prin-
ciple had never existed in any age or in any country.
History, both sacred and profsme, shewed the importance
that had been always attached to the priesthood, which had
never been assumed, but conferred. He was not so read in the
sacred writings as he ought to be, and he could touch on them
only with great deference. But he had read, u Lay hands
suddenly on no man ; " and also that persons chosen for such
situations should be " of good report." He could not think
of t]ie argument taken from the low condition of those who, in
earlier days, received their divine missions, as applicable to
present times, and as giving authority to the persons he had
alluded to? to lay their claims to divine influence, without any
attestation to their character and qualifications. The early
ages of the church shewed that purity of character was held
indispensible to him who attempted to enter into the solemn
offices of the priesthood. His noble friend had said, that no
case had been made out. He appealed to their Lordships on
462 APPENDIX.
that point. He then stated a circumstance that recently hap-
pened at Stafford, when the magistrate, certainly not regularly,
required the applicant to write his name, but who answered,
that he came there not to write, but to make the declaration.
He was convinced he had now made out sufficient grounds for
the second reading, and for going into a committee. The
noble Lord proceeded to state, from a paper he held in his
hand, in which the writer mentioned as an instance of the
laxity with which licenses to preach were granted, that he
had heard a person in the neighbourhood of London, wSio
seemed well versed in all the atheistical and deistical argu-
ments on the subject of religion, lecturing to a crowded audi-
ence for two hours and an half, and broaching the most irreli-
gious and even blasphemous doctrines. The Bill which he
had introduced would naturally check the existence or spread-
ing of such abuses, which could not fail to be lamented by
every man who was a friend to the morals or the happiness of
all classes of society; and he feared that the broad principle
stated on a former night by his noble friend, (Lord Holland)
tended to let loose this class of men, whose labours must be so
destructive of civilized society. Their Lordships did not do
their duty if they thought themselves absolved from attending
to the prevention of such abuses. It was their duty to pro-
tect the ignorant and unwary from being led astray, and to put
them on their guard against such mischievous practices. The
noble Lord then alluded to vajrious resolutions that had been
published in the newspapers. It had surprised him much to
observe one set of these resolutions subscribed by a very res-
pectable gentleman, who was a member of the other House of
Parliament, (Mr. W. Smith,) in which the Bill was represent-
ed as being designed to abridge religious liberty. He saw
with astonishment that such an object was ascribed to the mea*
sure, than which nothing could be farther from his thoughts.
Upon the whole, he could not help expressing an ardent wish
that the Bill should be read a second time, in order that it
might go into a committee, were it might undergo a variety
of amendments. He himself should propose several alterations
APPENDIX. 463
in the committee ; but if he perceived a strong unwillingness
on the part of their Lordships to entertain the Bill, however
much lie should regret it, he should respectfully acquiesce in
their decision. He concluded with moving, that the Bill be
now read a second time.
The Archbishop of Canterbury declared his utter abhor-
rence of every species of religious persecution. Whilst he
lamented the errors, as he thought them, of the Protestant dis-
senters from the church of England, he admitted that they had
a full right to the sober and conscientious profession of their
own religious opinions. The sacred writings were allowed by
ail Protestants to be the great standard of religious doctrine, but
the interpretation of them was liable to error. Uniformity of
religious belief was not to be expected, so variously constituted
were the minds of men, and consequently religious coercion
was not only absurd and impolitic, but for all good purposes
impracticable. As to the present Bill, he should deliver his
opinion very shortly. It appeared to him that there were only
two objects which it had in view ; the first was, to produce
uniformity in explaining the Act of Toleration, and the second
was to render the class of dissenting ministers more respectable,
by the exclusion of those who were unfit for the office. These
objects seemed laudable in themselves, and calculated to in-
crease the respectability of the dissenting interest. At the same
time the dissenters themselves were the best judges of their own
concerns : and as it appeared, from the great number of peti-
tions which loaded the table of the House, that they were hos-
tile to the measure, he thought it would be both unwise and
impolitic to press this Bill against their consent. He there-
fore wished that the noble Lord would withdraw it, and put
an end to the alarm which had been excited, even though it
might be groundless.
Lord Erskine said, that the evidence which they had had
in the multiplicity of petitions which he had the honour to pre-
sent to them against the present Bill, left no doubt as to the
opinion entertained by the Dissenters and Methodists on the
subject. But it was to be observed that a small part of the
484: APPENDIX.
petitions had yet arrived, and that if .longer time had been al-
lowed, ten times the present number, which already encum-
bered their Lordships' table, and loaded the floor of the House,
would have been presented ; such was the opinion which the
dissenters at large entertained of the measure, and such the
anxiety they felt at the appearance of encroachment on any of
the privileges which they enjoyed.
The Bill professed to be of a declaratory nature, and only
explanatory of the Act of Toleration ; but he would contend,
that it was repugnant both to the letter and the spirit of the
Toleration Act. As to the case of a man teaching blasphemous
doctrines, a circumstance to which the noble Lord had advert-
ed as having actually taken" place, was not such a person, he
would ask, liable to be indicted for a misdemeanour ? If a man
inculcated sedition or blasphemy from the pulpit, was he not
liable to be punished for it ? and was not this the case with
Winterbotham ? There was no occasion for any new law against
blasphemy ; and therefore, so far there was no occasion for the
noble Lord to refer to such an abuse as a ground for the pre-
sent Bill. His Lordship here made a distinction which is not
commonly attended to, and indeed seldom noticed, between
the Methodists and other classes of dissenters, by observing
that it had ever been their wish to continue members of the
establish Church, had they not been driven by the Conventicle
Act to qualify as dissenters, to avoid the penalties which would
have otherwise been levied upon them. That some of them,
to this day, have chosen to run the risk of such penalties, ra-
ther than qualify as dissenters in opposition to their principles,
for they do not dissent from the established Church. And was
it wise or just policy to subject this people to the vexatious,
and to them, ruinous, operation of a Bill, the principle of
which was subversive of the Toleration Act ? The noble Lord
then spoke in terms of high commendation of the zeal and use-
fulness of this people, and thought them worthy of encourage-
ment and support, rather than restriction and opposition. He
knew that some descriptions of preachers among them asked
no exemption from serving in civil offices. If they refused
APPENDIX. 485
to serve, their certificate would not protect them. The law
on this subject was quite clear, and required no explanation.
If a man was a religious teacher, and had no other avocation,
in that case he had u a local habitation and a name," he was a
pastor and had a flock, from which it was not the meaning of the
Toleration Act that he should be abstracted, in order to serve in
civil or military offices. But if all this was not the case, then
he could claim no such exemption. If the pressure of the
times, and the demand for military service, required that such,
exemption should be narrowed, then do it by a special Act to
that effect, and not by narrowing the Act of Toleration. He
had formed this opinion after he had been asked by his noble
friend to examine these statutes, before he knew that this Bill
was to be opposed by the dissenters, and that he should have
to present 250 petitions against it, from the societies in and near
London, and the neighbouring counties, of the late Rev. John
Wesley. But in a few days there would be an immense num-
ber from distant parts of the kingdom . He stated that the person
just named, the founder of the sec|, or numerous body of christi-
ans, whose petitions he with pleasure presented to that House, was
a man who he had had the honour to be acquainted with ;
and had heard expound the word of God ; whose labours had
not been equalled since the days of the Apostles, for general
usefulness to his fellow subjects. A man more pious and de-
voted, more loyal to his King, or more sincerely attached to
his country, had never lived. He also spoke in feeling terms
of the eminent character of his own sister (the late Lady Ann
Erskine.) The Act was a direct repeal of the most important
parts of the Toleration Acts, as they had been uniformly explain-
ed for one hundred and twenty years ; and he believed that no
court and no judges in the country would agree in the con-
struction put on them by the noble Lord. Would they suffer
a Bill to pass declaring that to be a law which was not law ?
It was not only necessary to look into the Toleration Act, but
into the intolerant Acts that preceded ity and beat down religi-
ous liberty. The noble Lord then went into some of these Acts,
and concluded with wishing to God that all of them could be
buried in oblivion. 3 o
466 APPENDIX,
After a variety of other arguments against the Bill, he con-
cluded a long but most eloquent and impressive speech, with
moving that the second reading should be postponed to that
day six months.
Lord Holland, in allusion to the assertion, that the ma-
jority of the petitioners probably did not understand the mea-
sure against which they petitioned, observed, that the holding
such language was singularly unbecoming and offensive.
Looking at the immense number who signed the petitions on
the table, it was no light libel to stigmatize them with want of
understanding on a question that so closely touched their im-
mediate interests. A Right Rev. Prelate (the Archbishop of
Canterbury) had said, that the deluge of petitions which over-
flowed their table, was produced by misapprehension. To
follow up the metaphor, it might be said that this deluge was
brought down by the flagrant sin of the Bill. Two charges had
been casually thrown out against him (Lord Holland :) one,
that he pushed the idea of religious liberty to an extent which
struck at the Christian religion itself: this he must utterly
deny. The other was, that he gave absurd and extravagant
praise to the Toleration Act, an Act which had been character-
ised as abominably intolerant. He would not go into those con-
siderations, but come directly to the Bill. He had before de-
clared his principles, and he saw now no reason to shrink from
them. He was an enemy, a most decided, principled, and
resolved enemy, to restraints on religious freedom. He was
convinced that every man had a natural right to choose his
mode of religious teaching, and that no authority had a right
to interfere with the choice. A man had as good a right to
preach a peculiar doctrine as he had to print it.
In the language of the Right Reverend Prelate, (the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury) the scriptures were a great largess to the
world, a mighty and free gift to all mankind ; not restrained
to the disciples or the discipline of a peculiar church, but
given for the benefit of the world. (Hear!) he considered
the Toleration Act as the great religious charter ; and religious
liberty could not subsist unless it was perfect and secure. In
the language of Locke, it was equal and impartial, and entire
APPENDIX, 467
libei ty, of which religion and religious men stood in need.
The Toleration Act had two parts. One of them was a most
generous and liberal concession to the people, and the other
>vas nothing beyond a base and scanty admission of an undoubted
right. In one of those parts a crowd of laws were merely done
away, which were a shame to the statute book ; laws that ought
never to have existed. In the other,' it was enacted, that on
signing certain articles, an immunity from specified inconve-
niences should be given to dissenting ministers. He was always
unwilling that questions of this nature should be stirred. He
would not go into the question, but if it pleased the House that
the Toleration Act, which had slept for a hundred and fifty years,
should be roused once more, he was ready to meet the whole
discussion. When the noble Lord (Sidmouth) had given no-
tice of his measures, the House could scarcely have the aspect
in which it was afterwards to look upon them. But at every
repetition of the notice, something was added. The evil com-
plained of by the noble Lord was more and more seen to be vi-
sionary, but the remedy was seen to be more and more violent.
One diminished as the other increased. As to the evils which
the Bill was to remedy, there was no document before the
House to prove that there was any loss of militia service by the
privileges of the dissenters. The noble Lord (Sidmouth) had
established his opinion on some private letters, on which pro-
bably that noble Lord placed much reliance. But were those
things to be documents, authorising the House to heap disabi-
lities on the whole immense body of dissenters ? The part of
the Bill which went to force the dissenting ministers to be moral,
after the fashion of the noble Lord, was new, and offensive,
and tyrannical. This was the distinct meaning of the noble
Lord. He would manufacture the dissenting ministers into
precisely such men as he would wish to have preaching to
himself; but this was not the species of preacher that the dis-
senters chose. This attempt of measuring the morality of the
dissenting minister by the noble Lord's private conceptions,
was totally opposed to the principles of the Toleration Act, and
was calculated to be eminently offensive and vexatious. What
3o2
468 APPENDIX.
was the mode of qualification? They must find six substantial
and reputable housekeepers to vouch for their morality. And
who were those that were to have the power of bringing for-
ward six such housekeepers to speak to character ; or who
was to deny thedissenters the right of having humble men for
their teachers? Suppose five hundred paupers choose to hear
religion from a man of their own choosing and of their own
class ; was it to be said, that the desire was beyond what might
be permitted ? and yet where was this teacher to find his six
substantial and reputable housekeeping vouchers ? Or was the
argument to be persisted in by those men who were ready to
boast of their attachment to religion, and to acknowledge, as
one of its glories, that it had risen by the labours of humble
men, not merely without dependence on, but in opposition to
the wealth, and influence, and power, of the great" of this world ?
Yet it was not enough for the Bill that the dissenting minister
should be devout and learned, but that he should be proved so
to his congregation. How ? by the signature of six substantial
and reputable housekeepers ? Was his ordeal to end here ? No;
the judgment of the six housekeepers was to be revised by a
country justice, before the dissenting congregation could be se-
cure of the teacher whom they had originally chosen for his
fitness. The article on probationers was unjust and absurd.
When a vacancy occurred in the dissenting pulpit, a number
of candidates usually appeared, who were to give evidence of
their qualities, by preaching, before they had or could have ob-
tained an appointment. By the operation of the article now
alluded to, those young men would be subjected to the horrid
penalties of the Conventicle Act. If this Bill were to pass, they
would fifid 50,000 Methodist teachers applying immediately
for licences, for fear of persecution. But though the regular
Methodist teachers might not have any thing to fear from a
prosecution of that nature, since the wise statute of Anne, yet
if this Bill passed, the whole important body of the itinerants
would be exposed to peculiar hazards. The noble Lord (Sid-
mouth) had spoken of having had the approbation of many
respectable dissenters on the Bill ; but he (Lord Holland/ had
APPENDIX, 469
conversed with many on the subject, and he had not found one
who did not decidedly disapprove of it entire. The Bill was
completely at variance with the original idea thrown out to the
House, as he understood it ; and he could not doubt that it was
at variance with all that he had ever learned to revere as the
genuine principles of religious liberty. (Hear ! Hear !)
Lord Stanhope said, he did not now rise to oppose the
Bill, because it had already got its death, blow. He hoped, how-
ever, it would be followed up by a measure of a very different
nature, (alluding to the repeal of the Conventicle Act) He
had never felt more pleasure in his whole parliamentary life,
than he had done on this very day; and if any one asked him the
reason, he would tell them, it was at the immense heap of
petitions that was then strewed upon their floor, and piled
upon their table, and all against this most wretched Bill. He
liked this, because a kind of silly talk had been going abroad
that there was no public. He had always thought otherwise.
He had heard it said, that such was the public feeling, that
they would not, at the present moment, be affected by any
thing which could possibly happen. The petitions now on
their Lordship's table, however, completely gave the lie to
this allegation. The event had shewn that there was still a
public opinion in this country, and that, when called into ac-
tion, it could manifest itself speedily, and with effect, He
was happy this had occurred. He had never doubted that
there was still such a thing as public opinion ; and hoped
those noble Lords who had hitherto doubted the fact, would
now be convinced of their error. And he saw to-day that
there was a public, and a public opinion, and a public spirit.
He saw it in the multitude of petitions sent up on so short a
notice ; and he was rejoiced to find it alive, active, and ener-
getic. He would not talk of the Bill ; that was dead and
gone ; and it would be beneath a man of sense to quarrel with
the carcase. (A laugh I) The Bill was declaratory as well
as active, and it was illegal as well as either. He defied all
the Lawyers in the House, and out of the House to prove
that this wretched and unfortunate Bill was not illegal. Hear!)
470 APPENDIX.
He would not condescend to argue every point. It was un-
necessary to argue upon what was beyond human help. ]t
was all over with the Bill ; its hour was come ; (lie Bill was dead
and gone , but he must say something on the subject, however.
The noble Lord (Sidmouth) had declared ihe Conventicle Act
to be abominable. He ( I ,ord Stanhope) was one of those who
detested that Act which they called the Toleration Act, and for
this reason, because it did not go far enough. He haled the
name of the Toleration Act. He hated the word Toleration.
It was a beggarly, narrow, worthless word : it did not go far
enough. He hated toleration, because he loved liberty.
(Hear!) There was not a man in that House — not jonc
among the law Lords — not one, perhaps, among the Bishops
themselves, that had read so many of our religious statutes as
he had : and disgusting, and foolish, and wicked, the most of
them were. He had gone through them with a professional
man by his side, and with his pen had abstracted and marked
off 300 laws about religion from the Statute Book; and he
ventured to assert, that they were of such a nature as would
make their Lordships disgusted with the Statute Book, and
ashamed of their ancestors, who could have enacted them.
There was but one good statute that he saw, and that was a
model for statutes r it was the wisest on religion that he had
ever seen. It was a statute of Edward VI- who might fairly
be said to be the first protestant Prince who had ever reigned
in this country, for King Henry the eight!), that defender of the
faith, could hardly be said to be a real protestant. This sta-
tute of Edward VI. abolished the whole set of religious statutes
before it. Yes, shoveled them away all at once ; it was the best
of statutes, (laughing !) For w hat need had religion of A cts
of Parliament ? Was not religion capable of standing by itself?
(Hear ! hear ! from Lord Sidmouth. ) The noble Lord might
say, hear! hear ! but was it not true ? If the noble Lord did
not believe it, he (Lord Stanhope) at least did. Was not
America religious ? Yet there, there was no established religion
: — there, there were no tythes. In one particular state, that
of Connecticut, he was informed there was a law, that if any
APPENDIX. 471
man voluntarily gave a bond to a clergymen, no suit upon
it could be entertained in a court of justice. And for a good
reason, because it being the duty of the clergyman to instruct
his flock, and to make them good and honest men, if he suc-
ceeded in doing so, no such suit would have been necessary:
on the other hand, having failed to perform his duty, he
could have no right to be rewarded. Oh ! if the establish-
ment in this country were never to be paid till they made the
people honest, many of them, he was afraid, would go with-
out any reward whatever. All, then, must have a right to
choose for themselves in matters of religion and this was not
the first time he thought so.
To toleration, as it now existed in this country, he was,
as he already said, a decided enemy ; but to religious liberty he
was a most decided friend, convinced that no restraint should be
put on religion, unless in so far as it might seem to endanger
the state.
Earl Grey said, though he perceived that his noble friend
(Sidmouth) did not mean to press this Bill farther, yet, lie
could not allow the question to be put without declaring his
unchangeable objection both to the details and to the principle
of the Bill, to which no modifications could ever reconcile him.
The principle of the Bill was restraint — restraint vexatious and
uncalled for. That it was a Bill of restraint, even his noble
friend (Sidmouth) himself had not denied, or attempted to dis-
guise. He (Earl Grey) was against all restraint. He went
along with his noble friend (Lord Holland) in tli inking that
every man who was impressed with a belief that he had a call
to preach, ought to have every liberty allowed him to do so.
One inconvenience stated to result from this unlimited liberty
had been said to be of a purely civil nature, inasmuch as it
afforded facilities to men not actually preachers, but who pre-
tended to be so, to avail themselves of that character, to escape
certain obligations imposed on the other subjects of the country,
such as serving in the militia, &c. Judging from the papers
on the table, he could not see the force or justice of this obser-
vation. Vnr the last fortv vears the number of persons licensed
472 APPENDIX.
appeared to have been about 11,000. lie should take, how-
ever, the last twelve years. Dividing them into two equal parts,
it appeared that, in the six former years, the number licensed
was 1,100, and, in the latter six years, 900, so that the number
had diminished, instead of increasing, and the present measure,
instead of being thereby more peculiarly called for, had be-
come so much the less necessary.
Lord Sidmouth briefly replied. He took some objection
to the legal reasoning on his Bill, and professed himself not dis-
mayed, by the opposition which it met, from bringing forward
any future measures on the subject, which he thought suggested
by his duty.
The question was then put by the Lord Chancellor, " that
the Bill be read a second time this day six months^" and car-
ried without a division : it was therefore entirely lost.
Lord Sidmouth's Bill being thus lost, and the subject of
Toleration having been so fully discussed, and so ably defended
in the House of Lords, it was rational to hope that the cause of
religious liberty would now be triumphant ; that persecutors
would be ashamed and hide their heads ; that the pious people
of the land would enjoy their privileges unmolested ; that every
man would be permitted to worship God according to the dic-
tates of his conscience, and " sit under his vine and fig-tree,
none daring to make him afraid." But alas! this hope was
fallacious ; the spirit of persecution revived, a new construction
was put upon the Toleration Act, and " the enemiesof religious
liberty exerted themselves to effect that without law, which
they failed to accomplish by it." Several magistrates in dif-
ferent parts of the kingdom, at the Quarter Sessions of the
peace, refused to administer the oaths as formerly, to the mini-
sters who applied, and in some cases they were treated with
rudeness and contempt !
The Conventicle Act was again brought into u#e, and several
persons were fined, or imprisoned, for preaching without li-
cences, or in unlicenced houses, and in one instance, for pray-
ing with a few poor people : this religious exercise, by accr-
APPENDIX. 473
tain Nobleman, who was chairman of the Quarter Sessions,
was construed in teaching, and the man was fined accord-
ingly ! This extraordinary decision, however, was overruled
by an application to the Court of King's Bench, and the fine
returned.
Dreadful outrages were committed in various parts of the
country, and the lives and liberties of his Majesty's peaceable
and loyal subjects were threatened and endangered.
These circumstances greatly alarmed the nation, and more
especially as several cases had been brought before the Court
of King's Bench, and the decisions of the Judges appeared to
be contrary to former interpretations of the Toleration Act.
Matters now began to wear a very alarming aspect, and it was
apprehended that the persecuting spirit of former ages was
about to be revived. The Toleration Act, under which the
Methodists and Dissenters had been so long protected, it was
now discovered, could no longer afford them protection. This
state of things excited universal interest ; the minds of the pi-
ous people in the land, both in and out of the established Church,
were greatly agitated ; and it was deemed highly expedient,
yea absolutely necessary, that some decisive steps should be
immediately taken, for the better security of the invaluable
rights of Conscience and Religion.
The Committees of the different denominations of Dissenters,
of the friends of Religious Liberty, and of Mr. Wesley's So-
cieties, as mentioned before, were again convened ; and after
the most mature deliberation, it was unanimously determined
respectfully to submit their grievances to his Majesty's Mi-
nisters, and to pray for redress. This they did, first to the late
Right Honourable Spencer Perceval, Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, who approved of the plan proposed for their relief,
and promised them support ; as will appear from the following
authentic copy of a letter, dated Downing-street, April 10th,
1812, and addressed to Joseph Butterworth, Esq. Fleet-street.
Downing-street, April 10, 1812.
Sir, — Having had an opportunity, in the course of the
late recess, to consider, with my colleagues, the subject of your
3p
474 APPENDIX.
communication, on the part of the dissenters, I proceed to ac-
quaint you as I promised, with our opinion upon it.
It appears to us, that the interpretations recently given, at
different Quarter Sessions, to those statutes under which ma-
gistrates are authorized to grant certificates to persons wishing
to act as Dissenting Ministers, (and which interpretations, as
far as they have hitherto undergone judicial decision, appear
to be more correct constructions of these laws, than those which
heretofore prevailed in practice,) place the persons, who wisli
to obtain certificates as Dissenting Ministers, in a situation so
different from that in which the previous practice had placed
them, as to require parliamentary interference and relief, to
the extent, at least, of rendering legal the former practice ;
and I shall, therefore, be willing, either to bring forward, or
to support, an application to parliament for the purpose of
affording such relief.
Understanding, however, that a case is now pending in
judgment, before the King's Bench, upon the construction of
some part of these Acts, it appears to me, that it will be desir-
able to postpone any direct application to the Legislature till
that decision shall explain the exact state of the law upon the
point in dispute in that case. By postponing the application
to parliament till after the decision in that case, no such delay
will be incurred as will prevent the application to parliament
in this session, since the decision will, I believe, be pronounced
upon it in the ensuing term. *
The precise mode of giving this relief, whether by the re-
peal of any existing laws, or by making the Act of the magi-
strate purely ministerial, in administering the oaths, and
granting the certificates, to such persons as may apply, is a
matter which I wish to be understood as reserved for future
consideration ; but I think it material to state, distinctly, that
I understand the desire of the persons, whom you represent, to
be this — that the exemptions to be conferred by such certifi-
cates, from the penalties, to which such persons might other-
wise be exposed for preaching, &c. should be universal to all
who so qualify themselves ; while the exemption from civil
APPENDIX. 475
*
and military burdens or duties should be confined to those only
who are ministers of congregations, and who make the ministry
so completely their profession, as to carry on no other business,
excepting that of a schoolmaster.
As to the question respecting the liability of dissenting cha-
pels to the poor rates, I am convinced that the dissenters must
consider it as a subject of very inferior importance, both in
effect and in principle. — On principle, I conceive, all that
could be required would be, that the chapels of dissenters should
be put precisely on the same footing as chapels belonging to
the establishment ; if they stand on any other footing, in point
of legal liability at the present moment, (which, however, I do
not understand to be the case,) 1 should be very ready to pro-
pose, that the law in that respect should be altered.
If you wish for any further communication with me on this,
subject, I shall be happy to appoint a time for seeing you*
, I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
(Signed J Sp. Perce val.
This letter reflects great honour upon Mr. Perceval, but
his lamented death which happened on the 11th of May fol-
lowing, put a stop to the proceedings of the Committees for
some time.
In the month of June they made application to the Right
Hon. the Earl of Liverpool, who very politely received the
deputation from the committees, and engaged to bring forward
and support a Bill which would effectually relieve them, and
secure to them all their religious privileges. A Bill was ac-
cordingly, in the month of July, introduced into the House,
which speedily passed through both the Lords and Commons,
almost without opposition, and received the Royal Assent on the
2Qfji of July. This auspicious Act is entitled u an Act to re-
peal certain Acts, and amend other Acts, relating to religious
3 p 2
476 APPENDIX,
worships and assemblies, and persons teaching and preaching
therein."*
I consider the obtaining the new Toleration Act as a glorious
epoch in the annals of British history : it reflects great honour
upon the nation, upon his Majesty's government, upon the
Legislative authorities of the land, and upon a// who used their
exertions to obtain it; I could not therefore deny myself the
high gratification, at the close of this work, to record the most
interesting circumstances whicli have come to my knowledge,
of this important event.
It has excited sentiments of gratitude and joy in the hearts
of every liberal-minded person in the country, and will more
than ever endear to them our happy constitution and the lenient
Government under which, Divine Providence hath placed us.
I record these circumstances the more willingly, because
they form a happy contrast between the present enlightened
and meliorated state of society and that recorded, by Dr.
Chandler, in the preceding pages. *
The following document may be deemed authentic, and
though containing but a small part of the interesting account
which might be given, will nevertheless gratify thousands of the
present generation, and will be read with grateful emotions by
those who are yet to be born. Our children, who may rise up
after us, when we are " gathered to our fathers," will pronounce
the framers and promoters of this Act blessed ; and our chil-
dren's children will joyfully exclaim, o god we have heard
WITH OUR EARS, AND OUR FATHERS HAVE DECLARED UN-
TO US THE NOBLE WORKS THAT THOU DIDST IN THEIR
DAYS, AND IN THE OLD TIME BEFORE THEM.
The following is a detail of the steps taken by the Commit-
tee of Privileges, belonging to the Societies founded by the late*
Rev. John Wesley. The letter was addressed, by the Com-
* 52 George the Third, Chap. 155.
APPENDIX, 477
mittee, to the Superintendants of Circuits in the Methodist con-
nection.
London, July 31st, 1812.
" In May last the General Committee of Privileges addressed
a circular letter to the Superintendants of Circuits, with a
view to allay the apprehensions of the people, under the cir-
cumstances in which they were then placed from the new con-
struction of the Toleration Act ; and to assure theni, that no
time would be lost in taking such measures as were likely to
promote the success of an application to the Legislature for
relief; and they, at the same time, inclosed the copy of a
letter from the late Mr. Perceval (published with his permis-
sion) in which he promised to bring forward or to support such
an application to Parliament : — but the melancholy death of
that lamented statesman, put an end for some time, to the cor-
respondence with Government upon the subject.
The Committee, being of opinion that a measure of this
nature and magnitude, ought to originate with his Majesty's
Government, (whoever might be in office for the time being)
solicited no individual member of the Legislature on the subject,
but waited till an administration was appointed ; when this was
done the Committee lost no time in addressing the Right
Honourable the Earl of, Liverpool : and after the necessary
communications, a Bill was introduced into Parliament under
his Lordship's auspices, which, to our inexpressible satisfaction
lias now passed into a law.
In order to understand the bearings and effect of this im-
portant and salutary Act of Parliament, and before we make
any general remarks, it may be necessary to advert to the situ-
ation in which our Societies were placed, and to some of the
proceedings of the Committee for the purpose of accomplish-
ing the object they had in view.
By the Conventicle Act, (22 Charles II. c. 1) it was
enacted, that if any person of sixteen years of age and upwards,
should be present at any Conventicle or meeting for religion,
other than according to the Liturgy, and practice of the Church
of England, at which should be present above five persons
478 ' APPENDIX.
besides those of the same household, he should pay a fine of
Jive shillings for the first offence, and ten shillings for every
subsequent offence ; which penalties might, in case of the po-
verty of an offender, be levied on the goods and chatties of
any person present. Every person who should teach or
preach at such Conventicle or meeting, should forfeit twenty
pounds for the first offence ; and forty pounds , for every sub-
sequent offence. Every person who should suffer any such
Conventicle or meeting in his house or premises, should forfeit
twenty pounds, which, in case of his poverty, might be le-
vied upon the goods of any person present. The justices
and the military were impowered to enter Conventicles, and
disperse religious meetings. And the Act declares the princi-
ple (most severe and intolerant) upon which it is to be inter-
preted, namely : — " That it shall be construed most largely
u and beneficially for the suppressing of Conventicles, and
"for the justification and encouragement of all persons to
" be employed in the execution thereof ;" and that no record,
warrant, or mittimus to be made by virtue of that Act, or any
proceedings thereupon should be reversed, avoided, or any
way impeached, by reason of any default in form ! It was
also declared, that the goods and chatties of the husband should
be liable for the penalties incurred by the wife for attending a
meeting for religious worship.
As to the Five Mile Act, (17 Charles II. c. 2) it is
thereby declared, that persons therein mentioned who should
preach in any Conventicle, should not come within Jive miles
of any corporate town sending burgesses to Parliament,
unless in passing upon the road, before such person shall have
taken the oath therein- mentioned at the Quarter Sessions, under
a penalty of forty pounds.
Besides these two Acts of Parliament, there were several
other Acts which rendered nonconformity, or a deviation from
the established religion of the country, unlawful, and highly
penal.
Thus stood the law relative to religious assemblies on the
accession of King William and Queen Mary, when, or
APPENDIX. 479
£oon afterwards, an Act of Parliament was passed for the relief
of conscientious persons, suffering under or exposed to those in-
tolerant and oppressive laws. By that Act (1 William and
Mary, c. 18) usually called the Toleration Act, it was in
substance declared, that with regard to private individuals, the
former Acts should not extend to any person dissenting from
the Church of England, who should at the Sessions take the
Oaths, and subscribe the Declaration therein mentioned ; and
with regard to the ministers of religion, it was enacted that no
person dissenting from the Church of England, in Holy Orders,
or pretended Holy Orders, or pretending to Holy Orders, nor
any preacher or teacher of any congregation of dissenting
Protestants, who should at the Sessions make the Declaration
and take the Oaths therein expressed, should be liable to the
penalties of the Acts of Parliament therein mentioned. Provi-
ded that such person should not at any time preach in any place
with the doors locked, barred, or bolted. By this Act also, a
justice was empowered at any time to require any person that
went to any meeting for the exercise of religious worship, to
subscribe the Declaration and take the Oaths therein mention-
ed ; and in case of refusal, to commit such person to prison.
And the ministers of religion having taken the Oaths under the
Act, were exempt from certain offices. It was declared, that
no assembly for religious worship should be allowed till regis*
tered. And disturbers of religious worship coming into a re-
gistered place, were subjected to the penalty of twenty pounds.
There are other provisions in the Act, which it may be unne-
cessary to mention ; nor need we particularize the Statute of
the 10th of Queen Anne, c. 2, which extends the liberty of a
person having taken the Oaths in one county, to preach in
another county; nor the Statute of the 19th of -George III.
which regulates the Oaths and Declaration to be made, and
extends the exemptions.
You will perceive, that it was only by the operation of these
last Acts, that any Protestant not resorting to the established
church, could be protected from the antecedent penal statutes;
and in proportion as the construction of these Tolerating Acts
480 APPENDIX.
was limited, would be the destructive operation of those penal
statutes. However, these Acts of Toleration were considered
by the various classes of Dissenters as the Palladium of their
religious liberty ; and their efficacy for the protection of the
various classes of Dissenters was never questioned till very
lately ; and all who believed it their duty to preach the religi-
ous doctrines which they held, and were inclined to protect
themselves from the penalties of former Acts, found little dif-
ficulty in getting the magistrates at the Sessions to administer
the oaths, &c. as it was the generally received doctrine, that
the magistrates acted merely ministerially — that they had no
authority to enquire into the fitness or character of the appli-
cant— and could not refuse the oaths, &c. to any man who re-
presented himself in Holy Orders, or pretended Holy Orders,
or as pretending to Holy Orders ; or as being a teacher or
preacher of a congregation dissenting from the church of
England ; and it was thought, that there could scarcely be any
dissenting teacher of religion who could not properly consider
himself as falling within one of the above descriptions. But
latterly there has been a manifest alteration in the conduct of
many magistrates, who, by narrowing the construction of the
Toleration Act, have, on many alleged reasons, refused the
oaths, &c. to several applicants. The new construction of the
magistrates, has in some points of very great importance to the
religious nonconformists, or occasional conformists, been sanc-
tioned by the Court of King's Bench, which held, that a man
to entitle himself to take the oaths, &c. as required by the Act
of Toleration, ought to shew himself to be the acknowledged
teacher or preacher of some particular congregation, and that
it was not enough for a man to state himself a Protestant Dis-
senter, who preaches to several congregations of Protestant
Dissenters. And with regard to persons pretending to Holy
Orders, the decision of the Court left us in great uncertainty.
In this state of perplexity, with regard to what was to be
the construction of the Toleration Act, or rather of probability
that it would afford but a very insufficient protection for the
Methodists, even if they could denominate themselves Dissen-
APPENDIX. 481
ters, the Committee were under the necessity of deeply consi-
dering the situation of the whole body. But when they were
constantly receiving intelligence from various parts of the coun-
try, of the appearance of a new spirit of hostility to the preach'
ers, and of persecution against the harmless members of their
Societies, by enforcing the penalties of the most odious of obso-
lete laws upon the persons of the poor and defenceless, the
Committee were exceedingly alarmed. For although they ad-
mired, and have experienced the benefit of the pure and impar-
tial administration of justice, for which this country is so cele-
brated, yet they could not but consider the state of the Societies
with apprehension, when they saw the press teeming with the
grossest slander and falsehood against them ; their religious
practices traduced and vilified ; and they themselves represent-
ed as " verminjit only to be destroyed" had such representa-
tions, been casual, they would have been disregarded ; but when
they were reiterated in certain popular Publications month af-
ter month, and one quarter of a year after another — when the
legislature were loudly and repeatedly called upon to adopt
measures of coercion against them, under the pretence that
evangelical religion was inimical to public security and morals ;
and, as they saw, that in unison with this spirit, there seemed a
growing disposition in many to enforce the penalties of the
Cotiventicle Act upon those who either had not taken the oaths,
or could not take them, or were not permitted to take them,
&c. under the Toleration Act, the Committee were under the
greatest apprehension that the Societies were about to be depri-
ved of that liberty to worship God, which, either under the law,
or by the courtesy of the country, they had enjoyed from their
first rise nearly a century ago. And their fears were far from
being allayed by the intelligence which thickened upon them,
and they became furnished with a mass of incontrovertible evi-
dence from different parts of the country, which shewed that,
even if the members of our Societies were to be considered as
Dissenters, it would be utterly impossible to get protection
tinder the Toleration Acts for our Preachers and Teachers,
especially for the Local Preachers, Class Leaders. &c.-&c
$ q'
482 APPENDIX.
These various Teachers were absolutely necessary for our
economy, and without them we knew that our Societies and re-
ligious customs could not be carried on. They had, it is true,
been tolerated by the general consent of the country, rather
than protected by the law; but this had with almost equal effi-
cacy secured the free exercise of their religious privileges.
However, as a bitter spirit of intolerance was thus manifest-
ing itself, the Committee thought it in vain to contend for pro*
tection under acts of parliament which were of uncertain inter-
pretation as to Dissenters, but of no value to those who const'
dered themselves as belonging to the Church of England, of
which the great bulk of our Societies is composed, the Com-
mittee therefore determined to submit their case to the Go-
vernment, and to Parliament , and to solicit the adoption of
such a measure as would secure to the Methodist Societies, and
to other denominations of Christians suffering with them, the
free exercise of their religious rights and privileges.
It now became necessary for the Committee deeply and cri-
tically to consider the situation and principles of the Societies,
in order to adopt a measure for their relief, which they might
submit to his Majesty's ministers for their support in parliament.
In doing this, the Committee could not forget that the Societies
are mere associations of christians, united for general im-
provement and edification ; and as the great majority of them
were, from religious principle, attached to the Church of
England, they could not conscientiously take the oaths as
Dissenters, — to whom, alone, the Act of Toleration applied.
Therefore no amendment of that Act appeared likely to answer
the purpose. But as Dissenters of various denominations were
also to be contemplated by the projected measure, it became
necessary to proceed upon some principle common to all. A
principle which should recognize the rights of conscience, and
at the same time afford that security for peaceable and loyal
conduct, which the government of any State has a right to ex-
pect. It appeared also material to avoid all phraseology which
would be exclusively applicable to any one sect of religious
people.
APPENDIX. 483
As to the principle, the Committee, at an early stage of
their deliberations., came to the resolution, that although all
well-regulated societies, and denominations of Christians, will
exercise their own rules for the admission of public or private
teachers among themselves, yet it is the unalienable right of
ever?/ man to worship God agreeably to the dictates of his
own conscience ; and that he has a right to hear and to teach
those Christian truths which he conscientiously believes, with-
out any restraint or judicial interference from the civil magi'
sir ate, provided he do not thereby disturb the peace of the
community, and that on no account whatever would the Com-
mittee concede this fundamental principle.
You will see at once, that it is only on this legitimate prin-
ciple, that the various members of our Societies, and indeed
mankind in general, have any right to teach and instruct one
another. It was on this leading principle, that we drew up
and submitted a Bill to the late Mr. Perceval, qualified however
with those provisions which made our religious worship known,
and laid it open for the inspection of all ; and left our teachers
subject to be called upon to take the usual obligations of allegi-
ance &c. which no good man could object to ; and which by the
Constitution, no subject can lawfully refuse; but at the same
time provision was made, that those oaths were not to be taken
as an antecedent qualification, but when required, they were
to be taken with the least possible inconvenience, by going be-
fore one neighbouring magistrate, instead of the Quarter Ses-
sions. A Bill founded on such principles, and with such
views, the Committee trusted would at once secure the rights
of conscience, and give every needful pledge to the State, for
the fulfilment of our duties as good subjects. And although
they did not attempt to amend the Act of Toleration, which had
now become so uncertain in its construction, but only sug-
gested a new Act, adapted to the present state of religious So-
ciety, yet they did not wish to remove the Old Toleration Act^
or lessen any of the benefits to be derived from it, by any class
of Christians.
On these principles, and with a view to establish them in
3 q %
484 APPENDIX,
practice, the correspondence with the Earl of Liverpool was
conducted, and we have the great satisfaction to say, that from
a just sense of the high importance of those principles, which
have been so powerful in the establishment and support of the
Protestant Church, and the preservation of civil order in this
country; and which are so congenial with every dictate of
sound policy, and pure religion, his Lordship and his Majesty's
Ministers prepared a Bill, which having now passed into a law,
will be found to carry into effect what the Committee deemed
so essential, in any measure designed to meet the situation of
the Methodist Societies, and other denominations of Christians,
To a short sketch of this Act, we have now to request your at-
tention ; but for full information we must refer you to the Act
itself.
The new Act absolutely repeals the Five Mile and the
Conventicle Acts^ and another Act of a most offensive kind,
which affected a highly respectable body, the Quakers. It
then proceeds to relieve from the Penalties of the several Acts
mentioned in the Toleration Act, or any amendment of the same,
all Protestants who resort to a congregation allowed by the Acts
there referred to : and you will not fail to observe, that while
it meets the situation of the Dissenters, how liberally it treats
the condition of our Societies. It is not now necessary that a
person should be obliged to relinquish his attachment to the
established Church, in order to bring himself under the protec-
tion afforded by this Act ; and on the other hand if he be a
Dissenter he is protected by this Act. The simple condition
of protection is, that a Protestant do resort to some place of
worship, which if not the only way, is at least the usual and
overt manner of shewing our belief in the existence of the Deity,
and in a future state of retribution ; without which, there is no
security for the peace and happiness of Society. To our So-
cieties, this feature of the Act is of great importance, because
it allows our members to continue their attachment to the
established Church, without relinquishing the privileges which
the christian communion of our Societies; so largely affords.
As under the Toleration Act, so under /this Act, all places of
APPENDIX. 485
worship must be certified to the proper Court ; but under this
Act, a Preacher need not wait till the place be registered before
he preaches. By the former Acts only five persons could meet
together, besides a man's own family, without having the place
registered ; by this Act, the number is extended to twenty per-
sons who may meet without certifying the place of meeting.
By the former Act, no person could preach till he had taken
the Oaths ; by this Act, any person may preach without hav-
ing taken the Oaths ; and is merely liable to be called on once
to take them afterwards, if required in writing by one Justice*
By the- Toleration Acts, persons were obliged to go to the
Quarter Sessions to take the Oaths; by this Act any person
may take them before one Justice only ; and in no case, is such
person compellable to travel above five miles for that purpose :
so that it will be perfectly unnecessary for any of our Preach-
ers or Teachers to take the Oaths until they are required by a
Justice, unless our travelling Preachers, who carry on no busi-
ness, and intend to claim exemption from civil and military du-
ties. By the new construction of the Toleration Act, it ap-
peared that only particular persons could insist upon taking the
Oaths, &c. by this Act any Protestant, whether preacher or
otherwise, whether a Dissenter or a Member of the Church
of England, may require a Justice to administer the Oaths, &c.
and grant a Certificate.
As to the exemption from civil and military duties, they are
about the same, as to Preachers carrying on no business, except
that the Toleration Act extended only to Dissenters, and this
Act exempts all Preachers as they were by the Toleration and
new Militia Acts, whether Dissenters or not. By the Tolera-
tion Act, so by this, the doors of all places of worship are to be
unlocked. In this Act you will observe a great and most bene-
ficial alteration for the protection of religious assemblies. The
Toleration Act did not provide for the punishment of riotous
persons who did not come into the house, by which means many
of our congregations were greatly disturbed by noises made
on the outside : but by this Act, any person who shall wilfully
and maliciously disturb a Congregation, (whether by coming
486 APPENDIX,
into or being on the outside of the bouse) shall incur a penalty
of ^40. which penalty is double the amount of that imposed
for the same offence by the Toleration Act. There is also
another important advantage in this Act, which is, that the writ
of Certiorari is not taken away, by which means, Proceedings
maybe removed into the Court of King's Bench.
Thus have we endeavoured to give you an outline of this
important Act of the Legislature : an Act which, we trust, you
and our friends will consider as clearly recognizing in practice,
those great principles which are the basis of religious freedom,
and that its operation will not only enable our Societies to exer-
cise under the protection of the law, those privileges which they
have ever considered the most sacred and invaluable, and
which, under the Divine blessing, have contributed to the conso-
lation of thousands ; but it will serve for the extension of piety and
virtue amongst all denominations, by promoting christian fellow-
ship, the dissemmination of Divine truth, and the interchange of
religious instruction. And whilst it amply extends the circle of
religious liberty to those who dissent from, or who only parti-
ally or occasionally conform to the established Church, as well
as to strict members of her communion, who wish to enjoy reli-
gious meetings, i( will excite attachment to, and encrease the
security of that church, which has produced so many champi-
ons for the verities of our holy religion, and in which indeed,
our Societies have been founded.
Nor should it be forgotten, (especially in times like the
present) that this Act is of peculiar excellency, from the effect
it will have upon the happiness of the religious poor. They
value exceedingly the liberty of associating for mutual religious
instruction and consolation. It is the exercise of that privilege
which soothes them under poverty and distress, and, by the
grace of God, makes them content under the apparently adverse
dispensations of Divine providence ; and teaches them to wait
with patience for the " inheritance which is incorruptible "
This Act by removing all restraint from the performance of the
great duty of " exhorting one another " may be considered as
having the well-disposed and pious poor for its object, and
AfPENDIX.
487
great will be their gratitude and gladness, that they can, under
the protection of this Law, worship God in their own way, and
instruct each other, as well as hear those Ministers whose la-
bours they esteem. And while it has this effect upon their in-
dividual happiness, it will make them value the Constitution of
the Country, through which they derive such benefits. In
short, the Committee cannot but contemplate this important ex-
tention of Religious Freedom, with the highest satisfaction and
delight ; and they cannot doubt, that in proportion to the ap-
parent excellency of this Act of Parliament, will be the magni-
tude of the benefits which the nation at large will derive from it.
In the accomplishment of this salutary measure, the Com-
mittee have necessarily had much correspondence with the
Prime Minister, the bight honourable the Earl of
Liverpool; and it is a duty they owe to his Majesty's
Government, and to that noble Lord in particular, to express
with pleasure and gratitude the high sense of the obligations
they feel themselves under, for the patient attention which his
Lordship has given to the many and necessary representations
of the Committee, as well as the readiness manifested to meet
fully, the situation of our Societies, and of other religious de-
nominations ; and for the cordiality with which his Lordship
matured and supported the Bill in Parliament, which appears
to be commensurate to the present necessities and wishes of
our Societies.
The Committee are also under considerable obligations to
His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, for his
polite attention to the subject, and for the liberal sentiments
expressed by his Grace, on various occasions : And we can-
not but feel great gratitude to all the right Reverend Prelates
who concurred in the Bill, without whose concurrence, it
must have met with considerable difficulties in its progress
through Parliament.
It is also the duty of the Committee, to express their hum-
ble thanks to the rest of the Cabinet Ministers, for the support
whicli this measure has received from them, and particularly
to THE RIGHT HONOURABLE. THE LoitD HlGH ClIAN-
488 APPENDIX,
cello r, for his Lordship's candid and liberal attention to
the Bill, in the House of Lords ; and also to the right ho-
nourable Viscount Castlereah, for the labour of con-
ducting it in the House of Commons. In these sentiments of
respect and gratitude, we are sure we shall be joined by you,
and our Societies universally.
The Committee are happy to inform you, to whom they
are under particular obligations, on this important occasion.,
that you may have the pleasure of participating with them, in
those sentiments which the sense of benefits received naturally
inspire. They will therefore mention, that they are greatly
indebted to the Right Honourable Earl Stanhope, to
the Right Honourable Lord Holland, and to the
Right Honourable Lord Erskine, for their attention
and support in the House of Peers ; and to William Wil-
berforce, Esq. James Stephen, Esq. Samuel Whit-
bread, Esq. and Thomas Babington, Esq. Members of
the House of Commons, from each of whom, the Committee
have derived important services relative to this valuable Act.
While endeavouring to express our gratitude upon this
occasion, rather than pretending to discharge the debt which
we owe to the distinguished characters we have mentioned, it
is with great satisfaction that we acknowledge the co-operation
which we have experienced from " the Protestant So-
ciety for the Protection of Religious Liberty,"
who represent the great body of Dissenters in this country, and
from our affectionate friends the Quakers, with whom, as
well as with other denominations of Christians we are happy v
to be associated in receiving benefit in the same friendly Act
of the legislature : we are sure this co-operation will encrease
your esteem for those respectable members of civil and religi-
ous society.
In considering the many circumstances relative to the pro-
gress and completion of this excellent measure, we cannot but
adore the providence and goodness of God, without whose di-
rection and aid the work could not have been accomplished.
And we would ascribe the glory, honour, and power to
APPENDIX, 489
Him, from whom alone all good councils and all just works
do proceed. Our joy is great upon this interesting occasion ;
but how greatly would our pleasure have been enhanced, had
this event witnessed the return of health to our gracious So-
vereign, whose name must ever be associated with Religious
Toleration : for his Majesty, in his first speech from the
throne, declared it his invariable resolution to maintain the
Toleration inviolate. A declaration which has been
religiously fulfilled during a long and beneficent reign ; and
should it please Divine Providence to restore his Majesty in
health to his affectionate people, it would, we doubt not, afford
him the highest gratification that a measure so full of regard to
the sacred rights of conscience, and so amply extending the
bounds of Toleration, had been carried into effect under the li-
beral administration of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent.
May it please God to smooth the bed of the Sovereign in his
affliction, and endue the Prince plenteously with heavenly
gifts, and prosper him with all happiness.
To conclude ; while on this memorable occasion, we ex-
press unfeigned gratitude to those who have rendered us assist-
ance, let us not forget to give the sole glory to that God " by
whom, Kings reign, and Princes decree justice," let us conti-
nue to cultivate the most affectionate regard for our King and
our Country: let us pray for more grace, that we may use
our extended religious privileges to the greatest advantage, not
only by provoking one another to love and to good works, but
by labouring incessantly to diffuse those sacred truths of our
most holy Religion, which we have long proved to be the
power of God unto Salvation, to them who believe; and thus
promote Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth
peace, and good will among Men,— the great end for
which our Societies have been established.
(Signed by Order and on behalf of the Committee,)
Adam Clarke, Chairman,
Joseph Butterworth, Secretary,
3 R
490 APPENDIX.
An Act to repeal certain Acts, and amend other Acts relating
to Religious Worship and Assemblies, and persons teach-
ing or preaching therein. — (29th July, 18120
52 Geo. III. c. 155.
Whereas it is expedient that certain Acts of Parliament
made in the reign of his late Majesty King Charles the Second,
relating to Nonconformists and Conventicles, and refusing to
take Oaths, should he repealed ; and that the laws relating to
certain Congregations and Assemblies for religious Worship,
and persons teaching, preaching, or officiating therein, and
resorting thereto should be amended ; be it therefore enacted,
by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice
and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com-
mons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the autho-
rity of the same, that from and after the passing of this Act,
an Act of Parliament made in the Session of Parliament held
in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of his late Majesty King
Charles the Second, intituled, * u An Act for preventing the
mischiefs and dangers that may arise by certain persons called
Quakers, and others, refusing to take lawful Oaths," and
another Act of Parliament made in the seventeenth year of the
reign of his late Majesty King Charles the second, intituled,
J An Act for restraining Nonconformists from inhabiting in
u Corporations ; " and another Act of Parliament made in the
twenty-second year of the reign of the late King Charles the
second, intituled, f " An Act to prevent and suppress seditious
Conventicles," shall be and the same are hereby repealed.
II. And be it further enacted, That from and after the pas-
sing of this Act, no Congregation or Assembly for Religious
Worship of Protestants (at which there shall be present more
than twenty persons besides the immediate family and servants
of the person in whose house or upon whose premises such
Meeting, Congregation or Assembly shall be had) shall be per-
* 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 1. + IT Car. II. c. 2. + 22 Car. II. c.
repealed.
APPENDIX, 491
mitted or allowed, Unless and until the place of such Meeting,
if the same shall not have been duly certified and registered
under any former Act or Acts of Parliament relating to regis-
tering places of Religious Worship, shall have been or shall
be certified to the Bishop of the Diocese, or to the Archdeacon
of the Archdeaconry, or to the Justices of the Peace at the
General or Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the county,
riding, division, city, town or place, in which such Meeting
shall beheld; and all places of Meeting which shall be so
certified to the Bishop's or Archdeacon's Court shall be re-
turned by such Court once in each year to the Quarter Sessions
of the county, riding, division, city town or place; and all
places of Meeting which shall be so certified to the Quarter
Sessions of the peace shall be also returned once in each year
to the Bishop or Archdeacon ; and all such places shall be re-
gistered in the said Bishop's or Archdeacon's Court respective-
ly, and recorded at the said General or Quarter Sessions ; the
Registrar or Clerk of the Peace whereof respectively is hereby
required to register and record the same ; and the Bishop or
Registrar or Clerk of the Peace to whom any such place of
Meeting shall be certified under this Act, shall give a Certifi-
cate thereof to such person or persons as shall request or de-
mand the same, for which there shall be no greater fee nor
reward taken than Two Shillings and Sixpence ; and every
Person who shall knowingly permit or suffer any such Congre-
gation or Assembly as aforesaid, to meet in any place occupied
by him, until the same shall have been so certified as aforesaid,
shall forfeit, for every time any such Congregation or Assembly
shall meet contrary to the provisions of this Act, a sum not ex*
ceeding Twenty Pounds nor less than Twenty Shillings, at the
discretion of the Justices who shall convict for such offence.
III. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That every
person who shall teach or preach in any congregation or assem-
bly as aforesaid, in any place without the consent of the occu-
pier thereof, shall forfeit for every such offence any sum not
exceeding Thirty Pounds, nor less than Forty Shillings, at the
discretion of the Justices who shall convict for such offence.
3 B 2
492
APPENDIX,
IV. And be it further enacted, That from and after the pas-
sing of this Act, every person who shall teach or preach at, or
officiate in, or shall resort to any congregation or congregations,
assembly or assemblies for religious worship of Protestants,
whose place of meeting shall be duly certified according to the
provisions of this Act, or any other Act or Acts of Parliament
relating to the certifying and registering of places of religious
worship, shall be exempt from all such pains and penalties un-
der any Act or Acts of Parliament relating to religious worship,
as any person who shall have taken the Oaths and made the
Declaration prescribed by or mentioned in an Act, made in the
first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, inti-
tuled, " An Act for exempting their Majesties' Protestant Sub-
jects dissenting from the Church of England, from the penal-
ties of certain Laws," or any Act amending the said Act, is by
law exempt, as fully and effectually as if all such pains and
penalties, and the several Acts enforcing the same, were recited
in this Act, and such exemptions as aforesaid were severally
and separately enacted in relation thereto.
V. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That every
person not having taken the Oaths, and subscribed the Decla-
ration herein specified, who shall preach or teach at any place
of religious worship certified in pursuance of the directions of
this Act, shall, when thereto required by any one Justice of the
Peace, by any writing under his hand, or signed by him, take
and make and subscribe, in the presence of such Justice of the
Peace, the Oaths and Declarations specified and contained in
an Act, passed in the nineteenth year of the reign of His Ma-
jesty King George the Third, intituled, * " An Act forthe fur-
ther Relief of Protestant Dissenting Ministers and School-
masters ;" and no such person who, upon being so required to
take such Oaths and make such Declaration as aforesaid, shall
refuse to attend the Justice requiring the same, or to take and
make and subscribe such Oaths and Declarations as aforesaid,
* J9 G. III. c. 44.
APPENDIX. 493
shall be thereafter permitted or allowed to teach or preach in
any such congregation or assembly for religious worship, until
he sliall have taken such Oaths, and made such Declaration as
aforesaid, on pain of forfeiting for every time he shall so teach
or preach, any sum not exceeding ten pounds, nor less than
tvn shillings, at the discretion of the Justice convicting for
such offence.
VI. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That no per-
son sliall be required by any Justice of the Peace to go to any
greater distance than five miles from his own home, or from the
place where he shall be residing at the time of such requisition,
for the purpose of taking such Oaths as aforesaid.
VII. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for
any of His Majesty's Protestant subjects to appear before any
one Justice of the Peace, and to produce to such Justice of the
Peace a printed or written copy of the said Oaths and Declara-
tion, and to require such Justice to administer such Oaths, and
to tender such Declaration to be made taken and subscribed by
such person ; and thereupon it shall be lawful for such Justice,
and he is hereby authorized and required to administer such
Oaths, and to tender such Declaration to the person requiring
to take and make and subscribe the same ; and such person
shall take and make and subscribe such Oaths and Declaration
in the presence of such Justice accordingly ; and such Justice
shall attest the same to be sworn before him, and shall transmit
or deliver the same to the Clerk of the Peace for the county,
riding, division, city, town or place for which he shall act
as such Justice of the Peace, before or at the next General
Quarter Sessions of the Peace for such county, riding, division,
city, town or place.
VIII. And be it further enacted, That every Justice of the
Peace before whom any person shall make and take and sub-
scribe such Oaths and Declaration as aforesaid, shall forthwith
give to the Person having taken made and subscribed such
oaths and declaration, a Certificate thereof under the hand of
such Justice, in the form following : (that is to say)
494 APPENDIX,
u I A. B. one of His Majesty's Justices of the
" Peace for the county (riding-, division, city, or town,
M or place, as the case may be) of
u Do hereby certify, that C. D. of, &c. [describing
u the Christian and Surname, and place of abode of
u the party~\ did this day appear before me, and did
" make and take and subscribe the several oaths and
" declaration, specified in an Act, macle in the fifty-
M second year of the reign of King George the Third,
" intituled [set forth the title of this Act.~\ Witness
"my hand this./ day of
" one thousand eight hundred and
And for the making and signing of which Certificate, where
the said oaths and declaration are taken and made on the re-
quisition of the party taking and making the same, such Jus-
tice shall be entitled to demand and have a fee of two shillings
and sixpence, and no more: And such Certificate shall be
conclusive evidence that the party named therein has made
and taken the oaths and subscribed the declaration in manner
required by this Act.
IX. And be it further enacted, that every person who shall
teach or preach in any such congregation or assembly, or con-
gregations or assemblies as aforesaid, who shall employ him-
self solely in the duties of a teacher or preacher, and not follow
or engage in any trade or business, or other profession, occu-
pation, or employment, for his livelihood, except that of a
Schoolmaster, and who shall produce a Certificate of some Jus-
tice of the Peace, of his having taken and made and subscribed
the oaths and declaration aforesaid, shall be exempt from the
civil servises and offices specified in the said recited Act pas-
sed in the first year of King William and Queen Mary, and
from being ballotted to serve and from serving in the Militia
or Local Militia of any county, town, parish or place, in any
part of the United Kingdom.
X. And be it further enacted, that every person who shall
produce any false or untrue certificate or paper, as and for a
APPENDIX. 495
true certificate of his having made and taken the oaths and
subscribed the declaration by this Act required, for the pur-
pose of claiming any exemption from civil or military duties
as aforesaid, under the provisions of this or any other Act or
Acts of Parliament, shall forfeit for every such offence the sum
of fifty pounds ; which penalty may be recovered by and to
the use of any person who will sue for the same, by any Action
of Debt, Bill, Plaint, or Information, in any of His Majesty^
Courts of Record at Westminster, or the Courts of Great Ses-
sions in Wales, or the Courts of the counties palatine of Ches-
ter, Lancaster, and Durham (as the case shall require ;) where-
in no Essoign, Privilege, Protection, or wager of Law, or more
than one Imparlance, shall be allowed.
XI. And be it further enacted, That no meeting, assembly,
or congregation of persons for religious worship, shall be had
in any place with the door locked, bolted, or barred, or other-
wise fastened, so as to prevent any persons entering therein du-
ring the time of any such meeting, assembly, or congregation;
and the person teaching or preaching at such meeting, assem-
bly, or congregation, shall forfeit, for every time any such
meeting, assembly, or congregation shall be held with the door
locked, bolted, barred, or otherwise fastened as aforesaid, any
sum not exceeding twenty pounds, nor less than forty shillings,
at the discretion of the Justices convicting for such offence.
XII. And be it further enacted, That if any person or per-
sons, at any time after the passing of this Act, do and shall wil-
fully and maliciously or contemptuously disquiet, or disturb
any meeting, assembly, or congregation of persons assembled
for religious worship permitted or authorized by this Act, or
any former Act or Acts of Parliament, or shall in any way dis-
turb, molest, or misuse any preacher, teacher, or person offici-
ating at such meeting, assembly, or congregation, or any per-
son or persons there assembled, such person or persons so of-
fending, upon proof thereof before any Justice of the Peace by-
two or more credible witnesses, shall find two sureties to be
bound by recognizances in the penal sum of fifty pounds to
answer for such offence, and in default of such sureties shall be
496 APPENDIX,
committed to prison, there to remain till the next General or
Quarter Sessions ; and upon conviction of the said offence at
the said General or Quarter Sessions, shall suffer the pain and
penalty of forty pounds.
XIII. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that no-
thing in this act contained shall affect, or be construed to affect,
the celebration of divine service, according to the rites and ce-
remonies of the united Church of England and Ireland, by
ministers of the said Church, in any place hitherto used for
such purpose, or being now or hereafter duly consecrated or
licensed by any Archbishop or Bishop, or other person law-
fully authorized to consecrate or license the same, or to af-
fect the Jurisdiction of the Archbishops or Bishops, or other
persons exercising lawful authority in the Church, of the Uni-
ted Kingdom, over the said Church, according to the Rules
and discipline of the same, and to the Laws and Statutes of the
Realm ; but such jurisdiction shall remain and continue as if
this Act had not passed.
XIV. Provided also, and be it further enacted, that no-
thing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed to ex-
tend to the people usually called Quakers, nor to any Meet-
ings or Assemblies for Religious Worship, held or convened
by such persons ; or in any manner to alter or repeal or affect
any Act other than and except the Acts passed in the reign of
King Charles the second herein-before repealed, relating to the
people called Quakers, or relating to any Assemblies or Meet-
ings for Religious Worship held by them.
XV. And be it further enacted, that every person guilty
of any offence, for which any pecuniary penalty or forfeiture is
imposed by this Act, in respect of which no special provision
is made, shall and may be convicted thereof by information
upon the oath of any one or more credible witness or witnesses
before any two or more Justices of the Peace acting in and
for the county, riding, city or place wherein^uch offence shall
be committed ; and that all and every the pecuniary penalties
or forfeitures which shall be incurred or become payable for
any offence or offences against this Act, shall and may be le-
APPENDIX. 497
vied by distress under the Land and seal or bands and seals of
two Justices of the Peace for the county, riding, city, or place,
in which any such offence or offences was or were committed,
or where the forfeiture or forfeitures was or were incurred, and
shall when levied be paid one moiety to the informer, and the
other moiety to the poor of the parish in which the offence
was committed; and in case of no sufficient distress whereby to
levy the penalties, or any or either of them imposed by this
Act, it shall and may be lawful for any such Justices respec-
tively before whom the offender or offenders shall be convicted,
to commit such offender to prison, for such time not exceeding
three months, as the said Justices in their discretion shall
think fit.
XVI. And be it further enacted, that in case any person
or persons who shall hereafter be convicted of any of the of-
fences punishable by this Act, shall conceive him her or them*
selves to be aggrieved by such conviction, then and in every
such case it shall and may be lawful for such person or persons
respectively, and he she or they shall or may appeal to the Ge-
neral or Quarter Sessions of the Peace holden next after such con-
viction in and for the county, riding, city, or place, giving un-
to the Justices before whom such conviction shall be made,
notice in writing within eight days after any such conviction,
of his her or their intention to prefer such Appeal ; and the
said Justices in their said General or Quarter Sessions shall
and may, and they are hereby authorised and empowered to
proceed to the hearing and determination of the matter of such
Appeal, and to make such order therein, and to award such
costs to be paid by and to either party, not exceeding forty
shillings, as they in their discretion shall think fit.
XYII. And be it further enacted, that no penalty or for-
feiture shall be recoverable under this Act, unless the same
shall be used for, or the offence in respect of which the same is
imposed, is prosecuted before the Justices of the Peace or Quar-
ter Sessions within six months after the offence shall have been
committed ; and no person who shall suffer any Imprisonment
for non-payment of any penalty, shall thereafter be liable to
the payment of such penalty or forfeiture.
3 i
498 APPENDIX.
XVI IL And be it further enacted, That if any Action of
Suit shall be brought or commenced against any person or per-
sons for any thing done in pursuance of this Act, that every
such Action or Suit shall be commenced within three months
next after the fact committed, and not afterwards, and shall be.
laid and brought in the county wherein the cause or alledged
cause of Action shall have occurred, and not elsewhere , and
the defendant or defendants in such Action or Suit may plead
the general Issue, and give this Act and the special matter in
evidence on any Trial to be had thereupon, and that the same
was done in pursuance and by authority of this Act ; and if it
shall appear so to be done, or if any such Action or Suit
shall be brought after the time so limited for bringing the same,
or shall be brought in any other county, city or place, that then
and in such case, the Jury shall find for such defendant or de-
fendants ; and upon such verdict, or if the plaintiff or plaintiffs,
shall become nonsuited, or discontinue his, her, or their Action
or Actions, or if a verdict shall pass against the plaintiff or
plaintiffs, or if upon demurrer, judgment shall be given against
the plaintiff or plaintiffs, the defendant or defendants shall have
and may recover treble costs, and have the like remedy for the
same, as any defendant or defendants hath or have for costs of
Suit in other Cases by Law.
XIX. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall be
deemed and taken to be a Public Act, and shall be judicially
taken notice of as such by all Judges, Justices and others,
without specially pleading the same.
Observations upon the Act of Parliament, (52d Geo. III.
cap. 155.J passed 99th July, 1812, relating to Religious
Worship, with some practical Directions.
SECTION II.
1. All religious Assemblies of Protestants, not exceeding
Twenty Persons, besides the family of the person in whose
premises such Assembly shall be held, are lawful without re-
APPENDIX. 499
leistering the place of Meeting, so that there will be no absolute
necessity to register the houses where Prayer, and other Social
Meetings are held. However, as it is attended* with scarcely
any inconvenience, it is recommended that all Places where,
in probability, more than Twenty Persons may assemble for
Religious Instruction, including Sunday Schools, be certified
and registered.
2. It is not necessary to register any place, which has been
registered previous to the passing of this Act.
3. It is not necessary to wait till the place is actually re-
gistered, but a Religious Assembly may lawfully be held after
a certificate that the place is intended to be used for Religions
Worship is lodged with the person or any one of the persons
mentioned in the Section.
4. The folio wino; form of Certificate to be sent to the
Bishop, or Archdeacon, or Justices of the General or Quarter
Sessions, is recommended, to sign which only one person is
necessary, that is to say,
" To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of
" (as the case may be) or the Reverend (A. B.) Arch-
u deacon of (as the case may be) and to his Re-
" gistrar, or to the Justices of the Peace (of the County,
" Riding, Division, City, Town, or Place, as the case
u maybe) and to the Clerk of the Peace thereof."
4i I, A. B. of (describing the christian and surname, and
" place of abode, and trade or profession of the party
" certifying) do hereby certify, that a certain Building,
" (Messuage, or Tenement, Barn, School, Meeting House,
" or part of a Messuage, Tenement, or other Building, as
" the case may be) situated in the Parish of and
u County of (as the case may be, and specify -
" ing also the number of the Messuage, &c. if numbered,
u and the Street, Lane, &c. wherein it is situate, and the
" name of the present or last Occupier or Owner) is in-
" tended forthwith to be used as a place of Religions
3 s 2
500 APPENDIX,
" Worship by an Assembly or Congregation of Protestants,
" and I do hereby require you to register and record the
u same according to the provisions of an Act passed in
" the 52d year of the Reign of His Majesty King George
" the Third, intituled An Act to repeal certain Acts, and
{s amend other Acts, relating to Religious Worship, and
" Assemblies, and Persons teaching or preaching therein,
" and I hereby request a Certificate thereof. Witness my
"hand this day of 181
« A. B."
The address to be used must depend upon the person or
persons with whom the Certificate is to be deposited. Between
the different Sessions, the Bishop and Archdeacon's Registry is
generally open.
It is not necessary that this Certificate should express that
the place is to be registered for protestant Dissenters, the Act
mentions only Protestants, and it is recommended that no
Certificate be accepted from the Registrar of the Bishop, or
Archdeacon, or from the Clerk of the Peace, which narrows
the term, or which states the place to be for any specific deno-
mination of Protestants. The Certificate should mention Pro-
testants only.
Two copies of the above Certificate should be prepared,
and signed in the presence of a respectable witness. One to
be delivered to the Bishop, Archdeacon, or Clerk of the Peace,
and the jother to be kept by the party, signing the same, who
is to require from the Registrar or Clerk of the Peace, to sign
a Certificate on the part to be kept, that such Certificate as
above has been delivered to him. Such Certificate to be writ-
ten beneath the name of the party or parties signing the original
Certificate, in the following form :
" I, C, D. (Registrar of the Court of the Bishop of
" or Archdeacon of or Clerk of the Peace
" for the County of as the case may be) do
" hereby certify that a Certificate, of which the above is
APPENDIX. 501
" a true copy, was this day delivered to me, to be regis-
" tered and recorded pursuant to the Act of Parliament
" therein mentioned. Dated this day oi*
" 181
C. D. Registrar, or Clerk of the Peace."
a
Thus in case any accidental delay in the Registration should
take place, and it be needful to use the place, as a place of re-
ligious Assembly, proof will exist that the Certificate was duly
delivered and consequently the parties be free from penalty, if
they use the place for Religious Worship after it is certified,
but before it is registered.
5. At the time the Certificate of the parties is presented to
the Bishop, or Archdeacon, or to the Sessions, the Fee of 2s.
6d. should be paid to the Registrar, or Clerk of the Peace, for
registering and certifying the same, and his Certificate should
be required accordingly.
SECTION III.
Before, it was made penal by this Section to preach in a
house, without the consent of the Occupier, a person doing so
was liable to an Action by the Common Law.
SECTION IV.
The first Section having repealed altogether the Five Mile
and Conventicle Acts, and an Act relating to the Quakers, by
this Section all Protestants, whether Teachers or Hearers, whe-
ther Dissenters or Churchmen, attending a Place of Worship,
certified under this Act, are exempted, even before actual and
formal registration, from the penalties of ail the Acts recited in
the Toleration Act, or in any Act amending the same.
SECTION V.
A Preacher may be required (if he has not already qualified)
to take the Oaths, &c. after he has actually preached, but it is
502 APPENDIX,
not necessary that any person should take the Oaths and sub-
scribe the Declarations required, as an antecedent qualification
to preach. Jlie requisition must be made by a Justice of the
Peace in writing.
The following are copies of the Oaths, &c. referred to in
the Section.
OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.
" I, A. B. do sincerely promise and swear, that I will be
" faithful and bear true allegiance to his Majesty King
6C George.
" So kelp me God,
"A. B."
i&v
OF SUPREMACY.
" I, A. B. do swear, that I do from my heart, abhor, detest,
" and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable
u doctrine and position, that Princes, excommunicated,
" or deprived by the Pope, or any authority of the See
" of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their sub-
" jects, or any other whatsoever. And I do declare, that
" no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate,
" hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, supe-
" riority, pre-eminence, or authority, Ecclesiastical or
" Spiritual, within this Realm.
" So help me God,
«A. B."
DECLARATION AGAINST POPERY.
" I, A. B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of
" God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do believe,
" that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, there is
" not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and
u wine into the body and blood of Christ, at or after the
APPENDIX. 503
u consecration thereof, by any person -whatsoever, and
" that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or
" any other saint, and the sacrifice of the Mass, as they
" are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious
" and idolatrous; and I do solemnly, in the presence of
" God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make this
iC declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and or-
" dinary sense of the words read unto me, as they are com-
," monly understood by Protestants, without any evasion,
" equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever ; and
" without any dispensation already granted me for this
" purpose by the Pope, or any other authority or person
u whatsoever, or without any hope of dispensation from
" any person or authority whatsoever, or without believing
" that I am or can be acquitted before God or man, or ab-
u solved of this declaration, or any part thereof, although
^ the Pope, or any other person or persons whatsoever,
Ci shall dispense with or annul the same, or declare that it
iC was null and void from the beginning
« A. B."
DECLARATION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH.
iC I, A. B. do solemnly declare in the presence of Almighty
" God, that I am a Christian and a Prostestant, and as
" such that I believe that the Scriptures of the Old and
" New Testament, as commonly received among Protestant
U Churches, do contain the revealed will of God ; and
" that I do receive the same as the rule of my doctrina
" and practice, ,
"A. B." ,
SECTION VI.
The Preacher is not now required to go to the Quarter Ses-
sions for the purpose of taking the Oaths, &c. but is to go be-
fore a neighbouring Magistrate for the purpose.
504 APPENDIX.
SECTION VII.
1. Any person, being a Protestant, whether Preacher or
not, may require a Justice to administer the Oaths, &c.
2. The person requiring a Justice to administer the Oaths,
&c. must take a fair copy of them. The forms of the Oaths,
&c. are given in the Notes on Section V, which, after substi-
tuting his name for A. B., are to be signed by the person who
desires to take them.
3. No person need be at the trouble of applying to take
the Oaths, &c. unless he be a regular Preacher, wholly de-
voted to the Ministry, who intends to claim exemption from
civil and military services agreeably to the 9th Section.
SECTION VIII.
This Section supplies the form of the Certificate of taking
the Oaths, and subscribing the Declaration, which the Justice
is to give in all cases, and for which he may demand 2s. 6d.
when the Oaths, &c. are taken on the requisition, of the party
taking them ; but this Fee is not payable if the Justices require
a person to take the Oaths, &c.
SECTION IX.
To entitle a person to exemption from civil or military ser-
vices, he must be altogether employed in the duties of a Teach-
er or Preacher, and not engaged in any secular employ-
ment for his livelihood, with the exception of that of a School-
master.
SECTION XII.
This Clause subjects to a penalty of ^40, any person or per-
sons who shall (whether on the outside ox within a place of reli-
gious Assembly) wilfully and maliciously, or contemptuously,
by any means disturb a Congregation, or disturb, molest, or
misuse any Preacher, or other person there assembled.
APPENDIX, 505
This clause, of extensive operation, will be found most ample
for the protection of all persons meeting for the worship of God,
and is a great and beneficial addition to the law on that subject,
In order to excite sentiments of gratitude in our hearts for
the invaluable religious privileges secured to us, as subjects of
the British Empire, by the above recited Act, and to evince
that these privileges ought to be very highly estimated by us,
I shall here insert, as a striking contrast, a copy of a most intole-
rant and horrid Edic trecently issued by the Emperor of China,
against the introduction of Christianity into his vast Empire. An
Empire that is said to contain about a third part of the population
of the world ! The inhabitants of which are immersed in the gros-
sest superstition and idolatry, and are sitting in the " region
of the shadow of death, without light and without vision."
The Roman Catholics indeed, have for many years had
Missionaries in China, but they have degraded the doctrine of
the Cross, by blending it with Pagan rites, and by withholding
from their own converts, the grand means of correcting their
errors, and illuminating their darkness, even the word of eter-
nal life.
The means of obtaining a version of the scriptures in the Chi-
nese language, have for several years past occupied the minds
of the Provost and Vice Provost, of the College of Fort Wil-
liam, in India ; and they considered it an object of the utmost
importance to introduce the Gospel, into that immense empire-
After much enquiry they succeeded in procuring Mr.
Johannes Lassar, an Armenian christian, a native of China, and
a proficient in the Chinese language. He relinquished his se-
cular employments, and entered immediately on the translation
of the Scriptures into that language ; and in this work he is still
engaged. Several young men also, who are under the tuition
of Mr. Lassar, are now studying the Chinese language, have
already made considerable proficiency, and are assisting in the
translation of the holy Scriptures. A printing press has been
procured, and a considerable part of the New Testament has
been printed off, from blocks, after the Chinese manner. While
3 x
506 APPENDIX*
Mr. Lassar and Mr. Joshua Marshman, (his elder pupil,) are
thus translating the Scriptures at Calcutta, Mr. Morrison is
prosecuting a similar work at Canton, in China, with the aid
of able, native scholars. Thus have the founders and support-
ers of the College, at Fort William, admitted a dawn of day
through that thick impenetrable cloud, which for many ages
has insulated that vast empire from the rest of mankind.*
These efforts to introduce the word of life into China,
seem to have excited the jealousies of the Emperor and his
Court, and to form the basis of the following Edict.
EDICT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY.
Canton, April 4, 1812.
The following Edict was translated from the Chinese into
Spanish, by a Roman Missionary, at Macao : and transla-
ted out of Spanish into English. I have not seen the ori-
ginal Chinese paper. I have seen several papers in the
Pekin Gazette, of which the following is indeed the sub-
stance. In those papers, however, the magistrates also are
threatened with degradation, dismissal from the service of
government, &c. if they connive at the promulgation of
what they denominate Teenchu Keaou ( The Religion
of the Lord of Heaven) — the name which the Roman
Missionaries have adopted. R. M.
The Criminal Tribunal, by order of the Emperor, conformably
to a Representation made by Han, the Imperial Secretary
(in which he desired that the Promulgation of the Christian
Religion might be obviated) decrees as follows:
The Europeans worship God, because, in their own coun-
try, they are used to do so ; and it is quite unnecessary to en-
quire into the motive : but then, why do they disturb the com-
mon people of the interior ?— appointing unauthorised priests
and other functionaries, who spread this through all the pro-
* See Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia,
APPENDIX. 507
vinces, in obvious infraction of the law ; and the common peo-
ple, deceived by them, they succeed each other from genera-
tion to generation, unwilling to part from their delusion. This
may approach very near to being a rebellion. Reflecting that
the said religion neither holds spirits in veneration nor ancestors
in reverence ; — clearly, this is to walk contrary to sound doc-
trine ; and the common people who follow and familiarize tbem-
. selves with such delusions, in what respect do they differ from
a rebel mob? if there is not decreed some punishment, how
shall the evil be eradicated?— and how shall the human heart
be rectified.
From this time forward, such Europeans as shall privately
print books and establish preachers, in order to pervert the
multitude,— and the Tartars and Chinese, who, deputed by
Europeans, shall propagate their religion, bestowing names,
and disquieting numbers, shall have this to look to:— The
chief or principal one shall be executed :— whoever shall spread
their religion, not making much disturbance, nor to many men,
and without giving names, shall be imprisoned, waiting the
time of execution ;— and those who shall content themselves
with following such religion, without wishing to reform them-
selves, they shall be exiled to He-lau-keang, &c. As for Tar-
tars, they shall be deprived of their pay. With respect to
Europeans at present in Pekin, if they are Mathematicians,
without having other office or occupation, this suffices to their
being kept in their employments ; but those who do not un-
derstand Mathematics, what motive is there for acquiescing in.
their idleness, whilst they are exciting irregularities? Let the
Mandarins, in charge of the Europeans, enquire and act.
Excepting the Mathematicians, who are to be retained in their
employment, the other Europeans shall be sent to the Viceroy
of Canton, to wait there, that when there come ships from the
respective countries, they may be sent back. The Europeans,
in actual service at the capital, are forbidden to intermeddle
with the Tartars and Chinese, in order to strike at the root of
the absurdities which have been propagated. In Pekin, where
there are no more Europeans than those employed in the Ma-
3 t 2
508
APPENDIX,
thematics, they will not be able clandestinely to spread faTse
religion . The Viceroys and other magistrates oft he other pro-
vinces shall be careful and diligent. If they find Europeans
within their territorities, they shall seize them, and act accord-
ing to justice, in order, by such means, to exterminate root and
trunk.— You shall conform to this decision of the Criminal
Tribunal.
It is an awful reflection that at this age of the world, in the
nineteenth century, there should be found any of the potentates
of the earth who should dare thus to oppose the introduction
of that gospel, which the Lord Jesus Christ, who is king of
kings and lord of lords, has commanded to be preached to
ALL NATIONS, and to EVERY CREATURE IN ALL THE WORLD.
But we remember it is said in the sure word of prophecy
" The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought, he
maketh the devices of the people of none effect. Why do
the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ? The
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel
against the Lord and against his annointed, saying, let us break
their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. lie
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have
them in derision ; He hath placed his King upon his holy hill of
Zion : And the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of
the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the
saints of the Most High; whose kingdom is an everlasting
kindom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. And the
nation and kingdom that will not serve him shall perish, yea,
those nations shall be utterly wasted. Let the potsherds strive
with the potsherds of the earth, but woe unto him who striveth
with his Maker."
He which testifieth these things saith, Lo I come quickly.
.Amen.— Even so, come Lord Jesus!
finis.
NOTES.
{A.) — Socrates, the greatest, the wisest, and the best of the
ancient philosophers, was born at Alopece, a village near Athens,
in the 4th year of 77th Olympiad. His distinguishing character
was that of a moral philosopher ; and his doctrine concerning God
and religion was rather practical than speculative. But he did not
neglect to build the structure of religious faith upon the firm founda-
tion of an appeal to natural appearances. He taught that the
Supreme Being, though invisible, is clearly seen in his works;
which at once demonstrate his existence and his wise and benevo-
lent providence. He admitted, besides the one Supreme Deity, the
existence of beings who possessed a middle station between God and
man, to whose agency he ascribed the ordinary phenomena of na-
ture, and whom he supposed to be particularly concerned about
human affairs. Hence he declared it to be the duty of every one,
in the performance of religious rites, to follow the customs of his
country. At the same time he taught that the merit of all religious
offerings depends upon the character of the worshiper and that the
gods take pleasure in the sacrifices of none but the truly pious.
Concerning the human soul, the opinion of Socrates, according to
Xenophon, was that it is allied to the Divine Being, not by a par-
ticipation of essence, but by a similarity of nature ; that man excels
all other animals in the faculty of reason ; and that the existence
of good men will be continued after death in a state in which they
will receive the reward of their virtue. Although it a^Dears that
on this latter topic he was not wholly free whom uncertainty, the
510 NOTES.
consolation which he professed to derive from this source in the
immediate prospect of death, leaves little room to doubt that he en-
tertained a real expectation of immortality : and there is reason to
believe that he was the only philosopher of ancient Greece, whose
principles admitted of such an expectation.
His death, by the hands of the common executioner, took place
in the first year of the 96th Olmypiad, and in the 70th year of his
age. Just before he drank the fatal hemlock, he said to a friend,
<• Is it not snange, after a 1 I have said to convince you that I am
going to the s, ciety of the happy, that Crito still thinks that this
body, which will soon be a lifeless corpse, is Socrates ? Let him dis-
pose of my body as he pleases, bnt let him not at its interment
mourn over it as if it were Socrates !"
(-B.) — Tertullian, a celebrated priest of Carthage, was the
son of a centurion in the Militia, who served as a proconsul of
Africa. He was educated in the Pagan religion ; but being con-
vinced of its errors, embraced Christianity, and became a zealous
defender of the faith. He married it is said after his baptism.
Afterwards he entered into holy orders and went to Rome, where,
during the persecution under the Emperor Severus, he published his
li Apology for the Christians," and in the beginning of the third
century he embraced the sect of the Montanists, who maintained
that the Holy Spirit made Montanus, their leader, his organ for de-
livering a m>re perfect form of discipline than what was delivered
by the Apostles. TurtulLan lived to a very great age, and died
about the year 216.
(C.) — Tacitus, Caius Cornelius, a celebrated Roman his-
torian, and one of the greatest men in his time. He applied him-
self to the bar, in which he gained high reputation. Having mar-
ried the daughter of Agricola, who was the Roman Consul, and
Governor of Britain, the road to public honours was open to him
under Vespasian and Titus, but during the sanguinary reign of
Domitian, he and his friend Pliny retired from public affairs. The
reign of Nerva restored those luminaries of literature to Rome, and
Tacitus was engaged to pronounce the funeral oration of the vener-
able Virginius Rufus, the colleague of the Emperor in the consul-
ship, and afterwards succeeded him as Consul in the year 97. — It
NOTES, 511
is supposed he died in the end of the reign of Trajan. There hav«
been five translations of his works into English.
(/).) — Herodotus an ancient Greek historian, born at Halicar-
nassus in Caria, about the year before Christ, 484. He travelled
over Egypt, Greece, Italy, &c. and thus acquired the knowledge of
the history and origin of many nations. He then bgan to digest the
materials he had collected, and composed that history which has
preserved his name ever since. He wrote it in the Isle of Samos.
Lucian informs us, that when Herodotus left Caria to go into
Greece, he began to consider with himself what he should do to be
for ever known and make the ages all to come his own. His history
he presumed would easily procure him fame, and raise his name
among the Grecians, in whose favour it was written, but then he
saw that it would be tedious to go through all the cities of Greece,
and recite it to the inhabitants of each city. He thought it best
therefore, to take the opportunity of their assembling all together|
and accordingly recited his work at the Olympic games, which ren-
dered him more famous than those who had obtained the prizes.
None were ignorant of his name, nor was there a single person in
Greece who had not either seen him at the Olympic games, or heard
those speak of him who had seen him there. There have been se-
veral editions of his works ; two by Henry Stephens in 1 570 and
1592; one by Gale at London, in 1679, and one by Gronovius
at Leyden, in 1715.
(E.) — Justin Martyr, one of the earliest and most learnecj
writers of the eastern church, was born at Neapolis, the ancient
Sychem of Palestine. His father, Priscus, a Gentile Greek, brought
him up in his own religion, and had him educated in all the Gre-
cian learning. To complete his studies he travelled into Egypt,
and followed the sect of Plato, with whose intellectual notions he
was much pleased. But one day walking by the sea side, wrapt
in contemplation, he was met by a grave old man of venerable aspect ;
who falling into discourse with him, turned the conversation by de-
grees from the excellence of Platonism to the superior perfection
of Christianity; and reasoned so well, as to raise in him an ardent
curiosity to enquire into the merits of that religion; in consequence
•f which enquiry, he was converted about A« D. 132. On his em-
512 NOTES,
bracing Chritianity, he quitted neither the profession nor habit of
a philosopher; but a persecution breaking out under Antoninus,
he composed an Jpology for the Christians; and afterwards
presented another to Marcus Aurelius, in which he vindicated the
innocence and holiness of the Christian religion against Crescens a
Cynic philosopher, and other calumniators. He did honour to
Christianity by his learning and the purity of his manners ; and
suffered martyrdom in 167.
(F.) — Polycarp, one of the most ancient fathers of the Chris-
tian church, was born towards the end of the reign of Nero, pro-
bably at Smyrna, where he was educated at the expence of Calista,
a noble matron distinguished by her piety and charity. He was a
disciple of St. John the Evangelist, and conversed with some of
the other Apostles. Bucolus ordained him a deacon and catechist of
his church, and upon his death he succeeded him in his bishopric,
to which he is said to have been consecrated by St. John. Poly-
carp governed the church of Smyrna with apostolical purity till he
suffered martyrdom in the 7th year of Marcus Aurelius. He
was burnt at a stake on the 23d of April, A. D. 167, and many
miraculous circumstances are said to have happened at his martyr-
dom, which Dr. Jortin gives full credit to, though some other
great men treat them as fabulous, such as, that the flames divided
and for some time formed an arch over his head without hurting him
&c. He wrote some homilies and epistles, which are now lost, ex-
cept that to the Phillippians, which contains short precepts and rules
of life. St. Jerome informs us that in his time it was read in the
public assemblies of the Asiatic churches.
(£,) — Cyprian, a principal father of the Christian church,
born at Carthage, about the end of the second or beginning of the
third century. His parents were Heathens, and he himself conti-
nued such till the last twelve years of his life. He applied him-
self early to the study of oratory, and some of the ancients, particu-
larly Lactantius, inform us that he taught rhetoric at Carthage with
considerable applause. Cyprian's conversion is fixed by Pearson
to the year 24G. He was at Carthage, where he had often employ-
ed his rhetoric in the defence of Paganism. It was brought about
by oae Cecilius, a priest of the church of Carthage, whose name
NOTES. 513
Cyprian afterwards took ; and between whom there ever after sub-
sisted so close a friendship, that Cecilius at his death committed
to Cyprian the care of his family. Cyprian was himself also a mar-
ried man. As a proof of the sincerity of his conversion, he wrote
in defence of Christianity, and composed his piece De Gratia Dei,
which he addressed to Donatus. He next composed a piece De
Idolorum Vanttate, upon the vanity of idols. Cyprian's behavi-
our, both before and after his baptism, was so highly pleasing to the
bishop of Carthage, that he ordained him a priest a few months
after, though it was rather irregular to ordain a man thus in his very
noviciate. But Cyprian was so extraordinary a person, and
thought capable of doing such singular service to the church, that
the usual period of probation was dispensed with. He consigned
over all his goods to the poor, and gave himself up intirely to divine
things. When, therefore, the bishop of Carthage died the year
after, viz. A. D. 248, none was judged so proper to succeed him as
Cyprian. The repose which the Christians had enjoyed during the
last 40 years had greatly corrupted their manners ; and therefore
Cyprian's first care, after his advancement to the bishopric, was to
remove abuses. Luxury was prevalent among them ; and many of
their women were not strict in the article of dress. This led him to
draw up his piece De Habitu Virginum, concerning the dress of
young women, in which, besides what he says on that particular, he
inculcates many lessons of modesty and sobriety. In 249, Decius
issued very severe edicts against the Christians; and in 250, the
Heathens in the circus and amphitheatre of Carthage, insisted upon
Cyprian being thrown to the lions. Cyprian upon this withdrew
from Carthage to avoid the fury of his persecutors. He wrote in
the place of his retreat, pious and instructive letters to those who
had been his hearers ; and also to those pusillanimous Christians
who procured certificates of the heathen magistrates, to shew that
they had complied with the emperor's orders in sacrificing to idols.
At his return to Carthage he held several councils, on the repentance
of those who had fallen off during the persecution, and other points
of discipline ; he opposed the schemes of Novatus and Novatianus ;
and contended for the re-baptizing of those who had been baptized
by heretics. At last he died a Martyr in the persecution under
"Valerian and Gallienus, in 258. His works have been translated
into English by Dr. Marshall.
3 u
514
NOTES.
(H.)— Hottinger, John Henry, a native of Turich, in Switz-
erland. He was born in 1620, professed the oriental languages and
was greatly esteemed. He was drowned, with part of his family, in
the river Lemit, iu 1667.
(i.) — Ireneus, bishop of Lyons, was born in Greece about
A. D. 120. He was a disciple of Poly carp, by whom, it is said, he
was sent into Gaul in 1 57. He stopped at Lyons, where he per-
formed the office of a priest; and in 178 was sent to Rome, where
he disputed with Valentinus, and his two disciples Florinus
and Blastus. At his return to Lyons, he succeeded Photinus,
bishop of that city ; and suffered martyrdom in 202 under Severus.
He wrote many works in Greek, of which there remains only a
barbarous Latin version of his five books against heretics, some
Greek fragments in different authors, and Pope Victor's letter men-
tioned by Eusebius. The best editions of his works are those of
Erasmus in 1526; of Grabe in 1702, and of Massuet, in 1710.
(K.) — Eusebius, one of the most learned men in his time, born
in Palestine about the end of the reign of Gallienus. He was the
intimate friend of Pamphilus the martyr, and after his death
took his name. He was ordained bishop of Cesarea in 613. He
had a considerable share in the contest relating to Arius, whose
cause he and several other bishops defended, being persuaded that
Arius had been unjustly persecuted by Alexander bishop of Alex-
andria. He assisted at the council of Nice in 325 ; when he made
a speech to the Emperor Constantineon his coming to the council,
and was placed next him on his right hand. He was preseut at the
council of Antioch, in which Eustathius bishop of that city was de-
posed ; but though he was chosen by the bishop and the people of
Antioch to succeed him, he refused it.
In 335, he assisted in the council of Tyre held against Athana-
sius : and at the assembly of bishops at Jerusalem, at the dedication
of the church there. By these bishops he was sent to the Emperor
Constantine to defend what they had done against Athanasius ;
when he pronounced the panegyric on that Emperor, during the
public rejoicings in the 30th year of his reign. Eusebius died in
the year 338.
NOTES. 515
(X.) — Sabellius, who gave rise to the sect of the Sabellians.
He was a native of Lybia, and a philosopher of Egypt. He taught
that the word and the Holy Spirit are only virtues, emanations, or
functions of the Deity ; and maintained that he who is in heaven is
the father of all things ; that he descended into the virgin, became
a child, and was born of her as a son : and that having accomplished
the mystery of our salvation, he diffused himself on the Apostles in
tongues of lire, and was then denominated the Holy Ghost. IXe
lived and died in the third century.
(M.) — Am us, who lived in the fourth century, the head and
founder of the Arians, a sect who denied the eternal divinity and
substantiality of the word. At the council of Nice, in 325, the
doctrines of Arius were condemned, and he was banished by the
Emperor, all his books were ordered to be burnt, and capital
punishment denounced against all who dared to keep them. —
After five years banishment he was recalled to Constantinople,
where he presented the Emperor with a confession of his faith,
drawn up so artfully that it fully satisfied him. Notwithstanding
this, Athanasius now bishop of Alexandria, refused to admit him
and his followers to communion. I'his so enraged them, that, by
their interest at court, they procured that prelate to be deposed and
banished. But the church of Alexandria still refusing to admit
Arius into their communion, the Emperor sent for him to Constan-
tinople ; where upon delivering in a fresh confession of his faith, in
terms less offensive, the Emperor commanded Alexander the bishop
of that church to receive him the next day into his communion, but
that very evening Arius died. The manner of his death was rather
extraordinary : as his friends were conducting him in triumph to
the great church of Constantinople, Arius stepped aside and imme-
diately expired ; his bowels gushing out, owing, as was suspected,
to poison.
(N.) — Constantine the great, the first Emperor of the Romans
who embraced Christianity. Dr. Anderson in his Royal Genea*
logies^ makes him not only a native of Britain, but the son of a Bri-
tish princess. It is certain that his father Constantius was at York,
when, upon the abdication of Dioclesian, he shared the Roman em-
pire with Galcrius Maximums in 305, and that he died in York i»
3 u %
516 NOTES.
306, having first caused his son Constantine to be proclaimed
Emperor by his army and by the Britons. Galerius at first refused
to admit Constantine to his father's share in the imperial dignity ;
but after having several battles, he consented in 308. Maxentius
who succeeded Galerius, opposed him ; but was defeated and drown-
ed himself in the Tiber. The Senate then declared Constantine^r^
Augustus, and Licinius his associate in the empire in 313. These
Princes published an edict, in their joint names in favour of the
Christians ; but soon after Licinius, jealous of Constantine's re-
nown, conceived an implacable hatred against him, and renewed the
persecutions against the Christians. This brought on a rupture
between the Emperors ; and a battle, in which Constantine was
victorious. A short peace ensued; but Licinius having shamefully
violated the treaty, the war was renewed ; when Constantine totally
defeating him, he fled to Nicomedia, where he was taken prisoner
and strangled in 323. Constantine now become sole master of the
whole empire, immediately formed the plan of establishing Chris-
tianity as the religion of the state; for which purpose, he convoked
several ecclesiastical councils ; but finding he was likely to meet
with great opposition from the Pagan interest at Rome, he con-
ceived the design of founding a new city, to be the capital of his
Christian empire. He died in the year 337, in the 66th year of his
age, and 31st of his reign.
(#.) — Socrates, an ecclesiastical historian, born at Constan-
tinople, in the beginning of the reign of Theodosius ; he professed
the law, and pleaded at the bar ; whence he obtained the name of
Scholasticus. He wrote an ecclesiastical history from the year
309, where Eusebius ended, down to 440, and wrote with great
exactness and judgment. An edition of Eusebius and Socrates,
in Greek and Latin, with notes by Reading, was published in Lon-
don, in 1720.
(P.) Athanasius, a bishop of Alexandria, and the great op-
poser of the Arians, was born in Egypt. He followed Alexander
in the council of Nice, in 325, where he disputed against Arius, and
the following year was made bishop of Alexandria ; but in 335 was
deposed by the council of Tyre : and by the Emperor Constantine
was banished to Treves. The Emperor, two years after, ordered
NOTES, 517
him to be restored to his bishopric : but on his return to Alexan-
dria his enemies brought fresh accusations against him, and chose
Gregory of Cappadociato his see; which obliged Athanasius to go
to Rome to reclaim it of Pope Julius. He was there declared in-
nocent in a council held in 342, and in that of Sardica in 347, and
two years after was restored to his see by order of the Emperor Con-
stance ; but after the death of that prince, he was again banished by
Constantius, on which he retired into the desarts. The Arians then
elected one George in his room ; who being killed in a popular
faction under Julian, in 360, Athanasius returned to Alexandria,
but was banished under Julian, and restored to his see under Jovi-
on. He was also banished by Valens in 367 and afterwards recal-
led. He ended this troublesome life on the 2d of May, 373.
(Q.) — Theodoret, bishop of St. Cyricus, in Syria, in the
fourth century, and one of the most learned fathers in the church.
He was born A. D. 386, and was the disciple of Theodorus of Mop-
suestes, and Chrysostom. Having received holy orders, he was
with difficulty persuaded to accept of the bishopric of Cyricus,
about A.D. 420. He displayed great frugality in the expences of his
table, dress, and furniture, but spent considerable sums in improv-
ing and adorning the city of Cyricus. Yet his zeal was not confi-
ned to his own church : he went to preach at Antioch, and the
neighbouring towns ; where he became admired for his eloquence
and learning, and had the happiness to convert multitudes of peo-
ple. It is supposed he died about the year 457. There are still
extant Theodoret's excellent Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles}
and on several other books of the Holy Scriptures.
\
(H.) — Gregory Nazianzen, from Nazianzum, a town of
Cappado«ia, of which his father was bishop. He was born in 324,
at Azianzum, a village near it, and was one of the brightest orna-
ments of the Greek church, in the fourth century. He was made
' bishop of Constantinople, in 379, but finding his election contested
by Timotheus, bishop of Alexandria, he voluntarily relinquished his
dignity about 382, in the general council of Constantinople. His
works are extant, in two volumes, printed at Paris in 1609. His
style is said to be equal to that of the most celebrated orators of an-
cient Greece.
518 NOTES*
(S.) — Porphyiiius, a famous platonic philosopher, born at
Tyre in 233, in the reign of Alexander Severus. He was the dis-
ciple of Longinus, and became the ornament of his school at Athens ;
from whence he went to Rome, and attended Plotinus, with whom
he lived six years. After Plotinus' death he taught philosophy at
Rome with great applause ; and became well skilled in polite liter,
ature, geography, astronomy, and music. He lived till the end of
the third century, and died in the reign of Dioclesian, He was an
enemy to Christianity, and wrote a large treatise against it, which is
lost. The Emperor Theodosius the Great caused it to be burnt.
- (T.) — Saint Jerome, a famous doctor of the church, and the
most learned of all the Latin fathers, was the son of Eusebius ; and
was born at Stridon, a city of ancient Pannonia, about A. D. 340.
He studied at Rome under Donatus the learned grammarian. After
embracing the Christian religion, and being baptized, he went into
Gaul. In 372, he retired into a desart in Syria, where he was per-
secuted for being a Sabellian, because he made use of the word
Hypostasis, as used by the council of Rome in 369. This obliged
him to go to Jerusalem, where he studied the Hebrew language, to
acquire a more perfect knowledge of the Holy Scriptures ; and con-
sented to be ordained, provided he should not he confined to any
particular church. In 381, he went to Constantinople to hear
Gregory of Nazianzen ; and in 382 returned to Rome, where he
was made secretary to Pope Damasus. He then instructed many
Roman ladies in piety and the sciences, which exposed him to the
calumnies of those whom he zealously reproved for their irregulari-
ties ; and Pope Siricius, not having all the esteem for him, which his
learning and1 virtue justly entitled him to, he returned to Bethlehem,
where he wrote against heretics. He had a contest with John of
Jerusalem and Rufinius about the Origenists ; and was the first
who wrote against Pelagius. He died on the 30th of September,
4W, about 80 years of age. His works arc voluminous, in eleven
volumes folio. His style is lively and animated, and sometimes
sublime.
(V.) — Julian, a famous Roman Emperor, styletj The Apos-
tate, because he professed the Christian religion before he ascended
the throne, but afterwards openly embraced Paganism^ aiid endea-
NOTES/ 519
?oured to abolish Christianity. He made no use of violence, how-
ever, for this purpose ; but behaved with a politic mildness to the
Christians ; recalled all who had been banished on account of reli-
gion under Constantius ; and endeavoured to pervert them by ca-
resses, and by temporal advantages, covered over by artful pretences:
but he prohibited Christians to plead before courts of justice, or to
enjoy any public employments. He even prohibited their teaching
polite literature, well knowing the great advantages they drew from
profane authors, in their attacks upon Paganism and irreligion.
Though he on all occasions shewed a sovereign contempt for the
Christians whom he stiled Galileans? yet he was sensible of tlie ad-
vantage they obtained by their virtue and the purity of their man-
ners ; and therefore incessantly proposed their example to the Pa-
gan priests. At last, however, when he found that all other me-
thods failed, he gave public employments to the most cruel enemies
of the Christians, when the cities in most of the provinces were fil-
led with tumults and seditions, and many of them were put to death.
Historians mention that Julian attempted to prove the falsehood of
our Lord's prediction with respect to the temple at Jerusalem, by
rebuilding it ; but that all his endeavours served only the more per-
fectly to verify it. Julian being mortally wounded in a battle with
the Persians, is said, to have catched in his hand some of the blood
which flowed from his wound, and throwing it towards heaven, cried,
Oh Galilean thou hast conquered. Thcodoret relates, that Julian
discovered a different disposition, and employed his last moments
in conversing with Maximus the philosopher, on the dignity of the
soul. He died, however, the following night in the 32d year of
his age.
(U.) — Sozomen, an ecclesiastical historian of the 5th century,
He was born in Bethulia, a town of Palestine ; he was educated for
the law, and became a pleader at Constantinople. He wrote an
abridgement of ecclesiastical history, in two books, from the ascen-
sion of our Saviour to the year 323. This compendium is lost,
but a continuation in nine books is still extant. He seems to have
copied Socrates, who wrote a history of the same period. The
style of Sozomen is more elegant; but in other respects he falls
short of that writer, displaying through the whole book an amazing
credulity, and a superstitious attachment to monks and a monastic
520
NOTES.
life. The best edition of Sozomen is that of Robert Stephens in
1544. He has been translated and published by Valesius, and
republished with additional notes by Reading, at London, 1720,
in 3 volumes folio.
(TV.)— Chrysostom St. John, a celebrated partriarch of Con-
stantinople, and one of the most admired fathers of the Christian
Church, was born of a noble family at Antioch about A. D. 347*
He studied rhetoric under Libavius, and philosophy under Andra-
gathus : after which he spent some time in solitude in the mountains
near Antioch, but the austerities he endnred having impaired hishealth
he returned to Antioch where he was ordained deacon by Meletius.
Flavian Melctius' successor, raised him to the office of presbyter five
years after; when he distinguished himself so greatly by his eloquence,
that he obtained the surname of Chrysostom or Golden mouth,
Nectarius, patriarch of Constantinople, dying in 397, St. Chryso-
stom, whose fame was spread throughout the whole empire, was
unanimously elected by both clergy and laity. The Emperor Ar-
cadius confirmed his election, and caused him to leave Antioch pri-
vately, where the people were very unwilling to part with him. He
was ordained bishop on the 26th of February, 398. He differed
with Theophilus of Alexandria, who got him deposed and banished;
but he was soon recalled. After this, declaiming against ine dedica-
tion of a statue erected to tkcmprcM, she banished him to Cucusus
in Armenia, a most barren and inhospitable place; af^rwards as
they were removing him from Petyus, the Soldiers treated him so
roughly that he died by the way, A. D. 407. The best' edition of
his works, is that published at Paris in 1718, by Montfauco
(X) — Dominic de Guzman, the fouuder of the religious order
called Dominicans. He was born at Calaroga in old Castile, in
1170. He preached with great fury against the Albigenses, when
Pope Innocent 3d made a croisade against that unhappy people,
and was inqusitor at Languedoc, . where he founded his order in
121 5. He died in 1221 , at Bologna and was canonized.
J. Perkins, Printer. Bow!aliey>Lane, Hull.
ERRATA.
Page iii. Preface, for sourses read sources,
418 for prvent read prevent,
422 for repeated read repealed.
426 after held, line 9, add it.
432 for therefore read thereof.
475 for July 23d. read July %9th.
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